What does non-GMO mean? Three labels, three different promises
Non-GMO means different things on different labels. How the butterfly seal, the USDA bioengineered label and organic differ, and where gene editing fits.
etc blog: Technology, food, climate and corporate power, et cetera
Lately
The best books on AI: ten that explain the machines and who controls them
The best books on AI for general readers: how the systems learn and fail, who profits from the data, and what the long-range worriers get right.
Is cloud seeding harmful? Silver iodide, flood claims and what seeding can really do
Is cloud seeding harmful? What silver iodide does, whether seeding works, the Dubai and Texas flood claims, and who regulates it.
Cultivated meat: a reality check
Six years after the first approval, cultivated meat is legal in a few places, banned in others and sold almost nowhere. The biology explains most of why.
Agroecology on the farm: what changes, season by season
Agroecology is a practice before it is a policy. What changes on a working farm, the FAO's ten elements in plain words, and the trade-offs to admit.
Bring back technology assessment
Congress closed its technology office in 1995. AI and synthetic biology make the case for public, independent foresight stronger than ever.
Soil carbon: what the science can promise, and what it can't
Soils hold vast amounts of carbon, but gains are hard to measure and easy to lose. What 4 per 1000, carbon credits and farmers can realistically expect.