Talking Biotech with Dr. Kevin Folta

When we think about corn, we usually think about sweet corn.  It is a departure from its cousins that are grown on the vast majority of the acreage, the corn bred for use as animal feed and fuel.  Sweet corn was specifically discovered and selected because of its sweetness.  But how does a kernel of corn divert the resources used for starch production into simple sugars?  Dr. Curt Hannah has been...

Michelle Miller grew up in Wisconsin and always had an interest in agriculture.  When she reached college she traded in rural life for the big city, working in LA at designer stores and living a big city life.  But has Farm Babes go, she would find her way from Rodeo Drive to driving to the rodeo. Since, she has been critical of those that marginalize farmers and farming, and has been a powerful v...

The Cavendish banana is the standard banana of commerce, yet it is under threat by a devastating disease that is spreading quickly around the world.  Dr. James Dale and his team have identified a banana resistance gene that confers resistance to the disease, and they have shown that it can fortify otherwise susceptible plants. These exciting findings aid food security issues as well as ensure the...

The Fall Army Worm is  a moth larvae that is incredibly destructive.  It causes widespread crop losses in the Americas and now has been found in Africa.  This pest consumes everything in its path, and can travel many miles on the wind.  It is believed that this organism could cause widespread famine in Africa.  Oxitec has proposed a solution, keying off of its current suite of insect control strat...

Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam is arguably the most effective voice in communication about biotechnology, especially in animals.  In today’s podcast she makes her third visit to Talking Biotech. In 2017, she and co-author Amy Young published a review of the literature that examined the presence of transgenic DNA or proteins in milk, meat and eggs. The data show that DNA and proteins from plants are dige...

When we talk about food and farming, Nick Saik has been excited to tell the story through the camera lens.  Nick has built quite an empire by telling the story of food and farming technology. Please check out Nick’s videos and support his efforts. This is the Know Ideas website . Check out Nick’s YouTube channel here. Follow Nick Saik on Twitter:  @nick_saik Know Ideas Media on Facebook   # COLABR...

Other areas swimming in myth and misinformation involve our pets.  Domesticated animals are part of our lives, and therefore are frequent subjects of marketing shams and dangerous trends.  An animal anti-vaccination movement is alive and well, and a pet food industry is as steeped in half truths, marketing and emotional appeals attempts to skew consumer purchasing trends.  This week’s podcast inte...

Dr. Maxine Thompson is a trailblazer.  With her education and profound interest in plant breeding, she defied a male-dominated establishment and became a plant breeder at a major university.  She would establish a decades-long career in plant breeding at Oregon State University, traveling the world on collection missions and making critical selections that define the roots of the OSU Hazelnut Bree...

Dr. Ray Shillito is a scientist that spent the early part of his career in plant transformation, attempting novel approaches in the early 1980’s.  It was a time of rapid development of new techniques, and a race to move genes into plants with the goal of genetic improvement.  Dr. Shillito shares his memories of that time, and then touches on his recent passion– how to train scientists to prepare b...

In 2017 we recorded 53 new episodes, including guest hosts and a great range of outstanding guests. 2018 has some interesting new edges.  Kevin and Paul talk about the year in review, and the plans for the future. End of 2017 with 672,000+ downloads.  Thank you for listening and for all of your support. # COLABRA Talking Biotech is brought to you by Colabra – an R&D platform that brings your l...

Groundnut, or peanut, is a major food staple and excellent protein source in many parts of the world.  However, since the nut itself develops in soil, it is prone to fungal infection with Aspergillus flavus, the species that produces aflatoxin. Aflatoxins are some of the most potent naturally-produced carcinogens and are thought to be responsible for liver cancer worldwide.  In the Developing Worl...

Nikolai Vavilov was a Russian scientist in the early 1900’s.  He was known for his characterization of plants, understanding crop domestication, and the centers of origin for many species. He traveled the world with expedition parties to identify and characterize plant species. His collections of seed and samples were extensive, and he was noted as one of the great scientists of the time, and unde...

Podcast 112 was a discussion of the dicamba situation. Since that episode was recorded I attended a conference from the North Central Weed Science Society in St. Louis, and heard more information first hand.  I also gave my perspectives in a 20 minute talk.  In today’s podcast bonus track I recap some of the discussion.  Bottom line, this problem needs to be solved, and the companies that sell the...

Over the last two years we have heard reports of herbicide damage to Midwestern crops, bearing the signatures of damage from dicamba.  Dicamba is an older herbicide, an auxin analog that mimics a plant hormone associated with growth and cell division. This herbicide was made relevant again in soybeans and cotton, which have been genetically engineered to be dicamba resistant, needed because of the...

Over the last century there was an incredible rise in the number of seed companies, driven primarily by the profitability of hybrid seeds in regional markets.  After the 1980’s, there has been great consolidation in the seed markets, resulting in about a dozen companies selling the vast majority of seeds.  The field is dominated by the “Big Six”, several companies that had broad portfolios, that p...

The promises of gene therapy have been slow to reach the public for many reasons.  Technologies conceived in the 1980’s had a substantial regulatory and proof-of-concept road ahead of them, leading to slow development and deployment.  One of the major issues is that these therapies were designed for humans, where ethics concerns and regulation are a challenge to navigate.  However, it is possible...

In this week’s podcast Dr. Jonnny Dalzell guest hosts from Tanzania.  He visits with scientists from IITA that are helping devise solutions to nematodes.  Nematodes are microscopic soil worms that are difficult to control and require substantial chemical inputs that are not always available and can be hazardous. Uncontrolled nematodes lead to damaged crops, and damage is not always apparent until...

Gene editing has been the center of attention, affecting everything from plants, to mushrooms, to livestock, to human medicine. However, when we discuss gene editing we typically describe the CRISPR Cas9 system.  Such tools have grabbed recent limelight.  But churning in the background, the other gene editing methods have been making progress for for years, and products are moving rapidly through...

Bolivia shares farming similarities with other South American countries.  They have diverse land races and native crops that they wish to preserve. At the same time some wish to take advantage of modern genetic tools.  Cecilia Gonzalez was a skeptic, someone that didn’t trust multinational corporations and certainly didn’t trust their technology.  As time went on she learned more about the technol...

In today’s podcast we speak with science journalist and author Mark Lynas.  Mark has been a central figure in the discussion of biotechnology, particularly in regard to its role in ensuring food security in the Developing World.  In the 1990’s and early 2000’s you could find Mark destroying test plots of genetically engineered crops.  Later he would reconsider his view, and support the technology,...

Uganda is at an interesting precipice.  They have invested in biotech solutions to solve problems in their central food staples, namely the matooke.  The matooke is a starchy banana, and while a cornerstone of the diet, it is threatened by disease.  Most people are farmers, and tend to ‘gardens’ of 2-3 acres, these are subsistence farmers that use the gardens to feed their families.  Xanthamonas b...

Simple solutions can sometimes have tremendous impacts.  In this episode Bret Rierson from the World Food Programme discusses a solution to enhancing food security in Africa and around the world.  Most African farmers are small acreage subsistence farmers.  They eat and trade what the produce.  A simple hermetically-sealed, in-home grain silo can protect a harvest from insects, preserving the yiel...

The evolution of weed and insect resistance to traditional controls has brought about the need for new approaches in crop protection.  Today’s guest is Dr. Doug Sammons (@wiltedweeds) is a biochemist from the Monsanto Company.  He has spent a career in understanding mechanisms of herbicide action and resistance, and now discusses new approaches using RNAi to enhance weed sensitivity to herbicide t...

The American Chestnut dominated the Appalachian landscape, ranging from Georgia all the way to Maine.  In the late 1800’s a pathogen imported on a tree to the Bronx Zoo spread rapidly into wild populations, destroying millions of trees, and radically changing the forest.  There are natural sources of resistance to the pathogen that are being introduced to the American Chestnut with traditional bre...

The diamondback moth is a formidable agricultural pest, causing tremendous losses on farms and requiring significant cultural and chemical-based management on both conventional and organic farms.  Dr. Tony Shelton has studied the diamonback moth for decades, and now has initiated the first open field trails of a genetically engineered sterile insect technique that could be a helpful solution.  Dr....