Nobel Conference Blog

Year: 2010

  • Race to the genome, redux

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    heldke

    Remember when two rival organizations were racing to sequence the human genome? Well, it’s happening again; this time with something that is, to some, nearly as precious as their own life: chocolate. The USDA and Mars (the candy company, not the planet nor the god of war) have just this morning announced that they have…

  • Confessions of a pusher

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    kchamber

    In my office desk drawer, I have a jar of dark chocolate.  I distribute pieces of this chocolate to colleagues and students who visit me.  According to a recent opinion piece by Gary Wenk, I should probably be considered a pusher. Chocolate contains phenethylamine, a molecule that resembles amphetamine, and a small amount of a…

  • Frances Moore Lappe at TED

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    heldke

    Frances Moore Lappe, whose talk will conclude the 2010 Nobel Conference, delivered this TED talk.

  • FDA: genetically modified salmon safe to eat

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    heldke

    On the Friday before Labor Day, the FDA released its findings that a salmon, genetically modifed to grow fast, is “as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon,” according to this story in the New York Times.The fish features a growth hormone from the Chinook salmon, which is kept “turned on” by a “switch” from…

  • Finding: Diet, not environment, the best indicator of “personal pollution levels”

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    heldke

    From an article in Chemical Engineering News: Research directed by Emma Undeman, a Swedish chemical engineering student, and Frank Wania, an environmental chemist at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, shows that diet  is a “key factor” in determining the load of pollutants that a given individual will carry. The region of the world in which…

  • What’s Biomimicry?

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    heldke

    The August 19 issue of  Now, a weekly news magazine from Toronto, features several articles on  “biomimicry,”  a concept developed by biologist Janine Benyus (Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature). One short article in the issue, “Plagued by the Plow,” by Wayne Roberts suggests that the agro-ecology long practiced in Latin America and Asia, constitutes a…

  • Expired, but still good? An ethical musing

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    heldke

    On the blog for his CSA, Paul Thompson  reflects on whether or not it’s ethical to donate food that passed its “best by” date.

  • “When a woman has assets, it impacts more directly on the access to nutrition for all members of the family than when only the man has assets.”

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    heldke

    India’s Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi, has recently called for a constitutional right to food, according to this article in the New York Times (“India Asks: Should Food be a Right for the Poor?”). She also advocates expanding the existing food entitlement program, to ensure that each family “would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag…

  • Optimistic news on the Russian seed bank?

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    heldke

    Following a surprise inspection at the the Pavlovsk station (the Russian  seed bank being threatened with destruction to make way for a housing complex), the auction has reportedly been “postponed for an uncertain period.” Read more here about the August 31 happenings.

  • Can we grow corn in Minnesota and still have wild-caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico?

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    brussell

    Guest blogger Joel Carlin writes: CNN published a story this week on Tony Thompson, a farmer in Windom, MN (just 75 miles southwest of St. Peter). Thompson is a super-fun guy who is very excited about keeping up the family tradition of farming in a way that is kinder to nature and consumers. Tony has met…