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Ugandan researchers share their frustration as nation debates GMO bill
When Dr. Geoffrey Arinaitwe returned home after earning his PhD in biotechnology in Belgium in 2005, Uganda seemed a promising place for young scientists. The country was deliberately prioritizing science and technology — disciplines envisioned as a vehicle to facilitate its goal of shifting from a peasant to a middle-income…
International science champions to join Cornell Alliance for Science training
The Cornell Alliance for Science is welcoming its 2018 Global Leadership Fellows, who include farmers, communicators, scientists, youth leaders and agricultural experts from eight nations. The 29 Fellows are traveling from their homes in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, the Philippines, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania to attend the 12-week intensive…
How Frankenstein unfairly sways the GMO debate
In 1992, when I was just two years old, a commentator (a professor of English, appropriately enough) writing to the New York Times distilled all the fear of genetic engineering rife at the time with the fear of “playing God” so popularized by Mary Shelley, into a single word: “Frankenfood.” Twenty-five years later…
As armyworm invasion devastates crops, Ugandan scientists bemoan GMO political stalemate
Ugandan scientists are confident that their latest field trials of genetically modified drought-tolerant and insect-resistant maize are yielding promising results, and say the seeds should be ready for farmers within two years — if the political environment improves. The ongoing trial of Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) hybrids at…
Are the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine movements merging?
The anti-vaccine and anti-GMO movements — driven by similar conspiracist fears about big corporations, ideological preference for "natural" alternatives and opposition to modern science generally — are increasingly overlapping.
Giving farmers the freedom to make choices
It's an injustice for activists from wealthy western countries to deny farmers in the developing world access to modern technology and the freedom to make their own choices.
Uganda likely to pass its Biotech Bill next week
Uganda’s long-awaited national Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill was delayed again yesterday, but is likely to be passed next Tuesday, according to the nation’s Minister of Science Technology and Innovation.