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Posts Tagged ‘biotechnology’
A Conversation with Claire Hope Cummings-Part 3
Claire Hope Cummings, in this third segment of interviews hones in upon the essential problems plaguing our agriculture system, she argues is a direct result of the industrialization of agriculture. “Our bodies are not machines”, Cummings reminds us, all the parts of a biological (agriculture) system must remain healthy if we are to produce healthy [...]
Patent Law: How Patents Grew Over Time To Include Living Organisms – 3
In this final post, I shift ground a bit to talk about a case the Supreme Court will consider in its new term starting this fall. The case is known Bilski v. Doll. The Bilski case raises the basic question, when is a process too abstract to be patentable? The answer to the question will obviously be most pertinent to patents on things like computer software and methods of conducting business (such as finance or marketing strategies). But, depending on how the Court explains its decision, the case could have broader implications for whether people can patent other processes, such as a process for diagnosing an illness or for treating an illness.
A Conversation with Claire Hope Cummings
Permaculture: the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing, appropriate technology, and community development. Permaculture is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting with the environment in mutually beneficial ways. —National Sustainable Information Service (ATTRA) In this 4-part series, journalist, environmentalist, and author of [...]
Vandana Shiva: The Future of Food-Part 1
“The world today is made, it is powered by science; and for any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery.” —J. Bronowski, Science and Human Values What inspired Jacob Bronowski’s classic science book, Science and Human Values resulted from his visit to Nagasaki in 1945. After witnessing [...]
Paul Roberts: The End of Food
Part 1. Paul Roberts, veteran print journalist, and author of The End of Food, and The End of Oil, speaks at the first ever, Organicology conference, in Portland, Oregon. The story he tells here is a cautionary tale. Modern science has created the industrial agriculture revolution, producing enormous benefits for society. Though over time, many [...]
Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food 3
There’s more to eating than just its effect upon our health. Pleasure, a sense of community, our sense of connection with nature, these are all highly important aspects of eating that may get overlooked. In this segment with Deborah Kane of Ecotrust, Michael Pollan discusses our over-reliance upon science to guide us in our food [...]