Val Giddings
Viewpoint: Why de-extinction efforts should be redirected at classical habitat conservation or improving agricultural production
“In considering the risks of recombinant DNA, we shy at kittens and cuddle tigers.” Thus James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis ...
Regulatory roadblocks set up decades ago hindering the adoption of sustainability-enhancing gene edited crops
Hardly a day goes by without another piece praising the potential for gene editing to help solve climate change.1 Nevertheless, ...
Biotechnology led to dramatic innovations in agriculture and human health in 2024
As 2024 fades into the rearview, it's a good time to reflect on the year that was—and what it might ...
Roadmap for the incoming Trump administration: Friend or foe of US agriculture?
President-elect Trump has promised his second administration will move aggressively to deliver relief from regulatory burdens in a number of ...
What is Mexico’s trade war targeting glyphosate and GMO corn really about
Thomas Jefferson famously noted that "[T]he greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to ...
Viewpoint: Here’s a reform roadmap to guide regulators as they seek to modernize oversight of the fast-innovating agricultural biotechnology industry
In 1986, the United States established a “Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology.” In the decades since, this policy ...
Viewpoint: Gene-editing roadblocks — Excessive regulations and a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ mindset hamper gene editing’s massive potential to address climate change
Jared Diamond (1997) observed that, "Any society goes through social movements or fads, in which economically useless things become valued ...
What’s next for GMO corn and herbicides in the wake of Mexico’s latest presidential election?
Thomas Jefferson famously noted that "[T]he greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its ...
Sequestering carbon on a gigaton scale: How gene editing can address climate change by reducing atmospheric emissions
Hardly a day goes by without another piece praising the potential for gene editing to help solve climate change. Nevertheless, the possible contributions of biology and biotechnology have been conspicuously ...
Green transition: How agriculture can drive climate change solutions
It is widely recognized that we must transition our energy economies to a greener, more sustainable state. This will only happen ...
Viewpoint: Global crop biotechnology revolution — 2022 saw dramatic advances in agricultural innovation
Conquest, war, famine, and death: Looking back on 2022 as the COVID-19 plague roars into its fourth year, the Four Horsemen ...
Viewpoint: How to turn Biden’s bioeconomy pledge from a PR exercise into proactive policy
President Biden has published an “Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American ...
Viewpoint: Bureaucracy building or real research and regulatory reform — Can Biden turn a proclamation to spur biotechnology innovation in health, energy and agriculture into actionable projects?
President Biden has published an “Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American ...
Viewpoint: How biotechnology can make geopolitical food security upheavals less likely — Ukrainian War prompts global rethink about Europe’s reliance on ‘obsolete technologies’
Celebrated in symphonies, and storied in literature and cinema, the steppes of central Asia have long played a key role in the history ...
Protecting wild salmon and other aquatic species: Success of AquaAdvantage salmon shows sustainable aquaculture will lean heavily on advanced breeding and biotechnology
Wild salmon are in trouble worldwide. Many Pacific and Atlantic populations have disappeared or declined to record lows. But as we and a group of ...
How genetically-engineered salmon could help preserve wild populations — if it isn’t blocked by anti-GMO activist groups
Salmon are iconic keystone species across the northern Pacific and Atlantic basins. Salmon is also a prized human delicacy. Wild ...
Viewpoint: What regulatory and diplomatic steps are necessary to forge a transatlantic alliance promoting agricultural biotechnology innovation?
Mutual self-interest provides a strong basis for transatlantic cooperation in biotechnology based on shared recognition of its vast potential to ...
Viewpoint: Beyond the precautionary principle — Climate change concerns underscore need for coordinated, flexible crop gene editing regulation
Although public-sector research centers across the developing world initially enthusiastically embraced biotech processes, wide adoption has since been impeded by ...
Viewpoint: mRNA and synthetic biology offer rays of hope after Annus Horribilis
The season of retrospectives is upon us. The past year will be long remembered with dismay and sadness, as the four horsemen—war, famine, pestilence and plague—each had robust ...
Gene editing and agriculture: Challenges and opportunities to significantly address climate change
Excess emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from human activities have accumulated in the atmosphere at levels sufficient to disrupt global ...
Viewpoint: By failing to endorse carbon-cutting biotechnology innovations, Glasgow climate summit missed ‘low hanging fruit’
Although verdicts vary, and some progress was clearly made, the climate change consensus emerging among scientists post-Glasgow is that the world continues on a path ...
‘Monsatan’ resurrected: Washington Post bungles review of misguided (and erroneous) new book
What better time than the Halloween season to indulge anxieties about mortality and its discontents and give running room to ...
Viewpoint: Here’s the backstory behind Sri Lanka’s synthetic pesticide ban and organic only decree
For most folks, “Sri Lanka” is likely to evoke a number of thoughts: tropical paradise with swaying palms and cerulean ...
Viewpoint: Eric Lander is the first geneticist to direct US science policy. Here’s how he can harness the biotechnology revolution
Eric Lander—geneticist, mathematician, president and founding director of the Broad Institute— took the helm on June 2 as director of the Office of Science and ...
Viewpoint: Suspending COVID vaccine patents will not solve the supply problem or hasten the end of the pandemic
In a recent Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria wrote: The United States is entering a post-pandemic era. This is happening primarily ...
How the Biden Administration can accelerate prosperity by fixing agricultural-biotech regulations
The Biden administration has a rare opportunity to accelerate agricultural innovation and spur broad and lasting economic growth by taking ...
The mRNA vaccines battling COVID-19 are revolutionizing virus fighting strategies. Here’s how
British economist Thomas Babington Macaulay challenged a thread of pessimism writing in 1830: “On what principle is it that, when ...
Podcast: Debunking ‘dangerous’ anti-GMO misinformation that harms developing countries
Crops and foods improved through biotechnology, popularly known as “GMOs” (for “genetically modified organisms”) remain at the center of a ...
