Synthetic Biology & Human Health: Myths, Fables & Synthetic Futures

And many of those gaps, or shortfalls, were impressive: These findings are important. To have raised all U.

That is an area equivalent to all the parkland and wildland areas in the lower 48 states, or 1. The low yields of organic agriculture impose a variety of stresses on farmland and especially on water consumption. A British meta-analysis published in the Journal of Environmental Management addressed the question of whether organic farming reduces environmental impacts. It identified some of the stresses that were higher in organic, as opposed to conventional, agriculture: Lower organic crop yields are largely inevitable, given the arbitrary rejection of various advanced methods and technologies.

Organic agriculture affords limited pesticide options, difficulties in meeting peak fertilizer demand, and a lack of access to varieties modified with the most precise and predictable techniques of genetic engineering. If the scale of organic production were significantly increased, the lower yields would increase the pressure for the conversion of more land to farming and the burden on water supplies, both of which are serious environmental issues.

Consider this from a recent Stanford publication: Organic production disfavors the best approach to enhancing soil quality — the minimization of soil disturbance e. Such farming systems offer multiple environmental advantages, particularly with respect to limited erosion, the runoff of fertilizers and pesticides, and the release of CO2 from tilling.

Organic growers do frequently plant cover crops, but in the absence of effective herbicides, they often rely on tillage or even labor-intensive hand-weeding for weed control. Many who are seduced by the romance of organic farming read: American farmer Blake Hurst offers this reminder: Organic farming does, in fact, use insecticides and fungicides to prevent predation of its crops.

Except for wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the fruits, vegetables, and grains in our diet have been genetically improved by one technique or another — often as a result of seeds having been irradiated or via wide crosses, which move genes from one species or genus to another in ways that do not occur in nature. The exclusion of certain organisms from organic agriculture simply because they were crafted with superior molecular techniques makes no sense.

In recent decades, we have seen advances in agriculture, such as plants that are drought- or flood-resistant, that make farming more environmentally friendly and sustainable than ever before. The co-discoverer in of recombinant DNA technology — the prototypic, iconic molecular technique for genetic engineering — was Stanford biochemist Dr. Cohen, who is still a professor of genetics and medicine at the university. The advantage of lower levels of acrylamide is obvious, but the bruise resistance is important to sustainability: Potatoes that resist bruising and late blight are major advances in sustainability, because every serving of French fries or mashed potatoes made from them requires less farmland and less water.

But none of these varieties can be used by organic farmers, including the Stanford students at Roble Hall. Sustainability has been defined this way:. When a process is sustainable, it can be carried out over and over without negative environmental effects or impossibly high costs to anyone involved.

That definition is compatible with the notion that sustainable farming is favored by maximizing human ingenuity and the quest for progress — that is, for inventing processes and products that are more efficient, less costly, and at the same time, less harmful to the environment. Follow him on Twitter henryimiller. Try sending the study and your article to the ones pushing this. As well as the science departments and any big shots that might have enough integrity to support you. Eric, what I saw at my school was that faculty who were members of the U.

Repeated efforts organize events that would give conventional agriculture and genetic engineering equal time were stonewalled. And this was an Ivy League school.

As you may know, in the surreal political environment of academia, it will take either a sustained and highly visible student unrest, or years of internal faculty discussion, facilitated by the highest levels of the University, to change the status quo. Agreed, the busybodies are more aggressive and more organized.

• Buy for others.
• Secretos del Staffordshire Americano - Cómo Educar y Adiestrar a un Staffordshire Americano (Spanish Edition)!
• Latest articles.
• The Contract (Chimera Domination & Submission).

However, it is the deans, vice presidents and presidents responsibility to make sure that the truth of these matters is what is taught. To fail at that responsibility is to fail at educating.

Fairy tales

The principle of academic freedom prevents administrative intervention. Because for the last seventy years all chemical and biological technologies, from genetic engineering to pesticides, have been built on a myth of precision and specificity. They have all been adopted under the pretense that they would function without side effects or unexpected complications. Yet the extraordinary disasters and repercussions of DDT, leaded paint, agent orange, atrazine, C8, asbestos, chlordane, PCBs, and so on, when all is said and done, have been stories of the steady unraveling of a founding myth of precision and specificity.

But no matter how you look at it, precision is a fable and should be treated as such. A world cleansed of genetic disease is repeatedly cast as the carrot to be dangled before an American public starved for more basic health investments. Who decides what the future of synthetic biology looks like? Next month, researchers, policymakers, ethicists and social scientists will meet in Hong Kong for the second International Summit on Human Gene Editing.

Since the first summit, held in Washington DC nearly three years ago, researchers have continued to apply the Arizona has become the first state in the country to pass a law that would allow frozen embryos to be given to the person who wants to develop them "to birth" after a couple separates or divorces. By Elliot Hosman Guangzhou Circle The experiments were largely unsuccessful: The research team acknowledged the controversial nature of their work amid ongoing debates: New tools and research for hacking the CRISPR patent war Even as CRISPR investments, biomaterials, and research licenses proliferate internationally, the ongoing patent fight between prominent American universities has had a major impact on the landscape.

Previously on Biopolitical Times: Why Is Editas Going Public?

Hype by Association Image via Pixabay. Use the patent system to regulate gene editing. By Shobita Parthasarathy, Nature By Megan Molteni, Wired By Jon Cohen, Science By Nita Farahany, wbur