Blog: Bringing in Indigenous Perspectives on Synthetic Biology for Conservation

February 27, 2024 | Guest Author

Jill Furgurson | Dr. Kirsty Wissing's colloquium presentation highlighted the essential role of Indigenous participation in shaping conservation agendas, advocating for approaches that honor traditional ecological knowledge....

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Nick Loschin with David Andow at the GES colloquium on February 6, 2024

Blog: Key Ecological Perspectives: Tracing the Evolution of GMO Oversight with Dr. David Andow

February 21, 2024 | Guest Author

Nick Loschin | Dr. David Andow provided his insights and expertise on ecological and evolutionary perspectives related to genetic engineering through key events from the 1980s to the early 2000s...

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Jean Ristaino stands next to potato plots in the backyard of Down House, Charles Darwin's home.

Preventing the Next Plant Plague

February 19, 2024 | Guest Author

NC State's Jean Ristaino will write a book on her Irish Potato Famine research and work to prevent future plant disease outbreaks while in Dublin as a Fulbright scholar....

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NC State Named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution

February 16, 2024 | Guest Author

NC State has been recognized as one of the universities with the highest number of students, faculty and administrators selected for both the U.S. Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs, including three GES faculty members and an AgBioFEWS Fellow in 2023–24....

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This photograph is dated 1926 in the American Eugenics Society Records. The sign at the top reads, “This light flashes every 15 seconds. Every 15 seconds, $1.00 of your money goes for the care of persons with bad heredity such as the insane feebleminded criminals & other defectives”. Below center, promotional material for a “Fitter Families Contest” to be held at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass.

Blog: Remembering 20th Century Eugenics in North Carolina

February 14, 2024 | Guest Author

Nolan Speicher | In a recent GES colloquium, PhD student Grace Wiedrich shared archival research that invites audiences to reflect on the eugenics movement and its intersections with our local history....

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Christopher Gilleslie at the Farmer's Market

Envisioning a More Equitable Food System

February 13, 2024 | Guest Author

Doctoral candidate and AgBioFEWS Fellow Christopher Gillespie seeks a stronger, more racially equitable food system, and at NC State, he’s taking steps to achieve that....

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Starting Strong

February 7, 2024 | Guest Author

The first small companies to join the startup program are pursuing diverse products aimed at solving different agricultural problems. For example, Eli Hornstein, who holds a Ph.D. from NC State in plant metabolic engineering, has started Elysia Creative Biology to help slow climate change by producing bioengineered crops that can be turned into feed that reduces the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas, from cows....

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Blog: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the U.S. Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy

January 24, 2024 | Khara Grieger

In December, GES-affiliated faculty and students participated in a roundtable discussion on the EO at the recent Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC. The roundtable aimed to discuss the strengths and limitations of the recent EO on bio-innovation from interdisciplinary perspectives, highlighting aspects of biotechnology regulation and risk in particular....

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angular metal arch silhouetted against a cloudy sky

Is Our Phosphorus Use Sustainable? Most Stakeholders Doubt It

July 6, 2023 | Khara Grieger

Matt Shipman and Khara Grieger | A new study finds that most phosphorus stakeholders – representing a wide swath of industry, agriculture, environmental and policy interests – have significant doubts about the long-term sustainability of existing phosphorus management systems. The study underscores the complex challenges facing policymakers and other decision-makers as they attempt to ensure our continued access to a critical resource that is finite and largely non-renewable....

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Joseph Gakpo and Modesta Abugu presenting their poster at the ‘International Conference on GMO Analysis and New Genomic Techniques’

Blog: The Challenges of GMO Detection and Traceability in a Globalized Food System

April 7, 2023 | Guest Author

By Joseph Opoku Gakpo and Modesta Abugu | The traceability and detection of biotech foods in a globalized system remain crucial, and while detection methods have improved, many challenges remain, especially for products of new genomic methods like CRISPR....

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Blog: Impressions from the field: biotechnology, scale, and change

April 5, 2023 | Guest Author

By Asa Budnick and Jill Furgurson | Over the summer of 2022, the last cohort of AgBioFEWS graduate students conducted field research in eastern North Carolina, gaining insights into the intersection of biotechnology, farm size, and environmental shifts on farmers....

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A plenary meeting of the United Nations biodiversity conference (December 2022). Credit: Willy Wei

Blog: Reflections on COP15

January 13, 2023 | Khara Grieger

GES members attended the recent UN biodiversity conference to better understand the impacts of biotechnology on biodiversity and conservation....

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DNA strand and the words Gene Drive in Public Health- A workshop to explore the value of a global gene drive project registry.

Experts from 14 Nations Discuss Global Gene Drive Project Registry

December 15, 2022 | Guest Author

By Yadira Galindo | UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science led 70 participants from 14 nations, including several GES Center faculty, in a discussion on the ways in which a gene drive project registry could both contribute to and detract from the fair development, testing and use of gene-drive modified organisms...

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Tradition Meets Innovation

November 18, 2022 | Guest Author

By Kristen Sargent | Fueled by their father’s passion for agriculture, Ruthie and DJ Stokes are keeping a family promise: do what you love. The fourth-generation farmers have found common ground in supporting producers back home and feeding a growing population....

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Modesta Abugu in a Sweetpotato field in Clinton, NC. Photo credit: Simon Fraher, NC State University.

Modesta Abugu: Improving Sweetpotato Flavor for Nutrition Security

October 7, 2022 | Guest Author

By Brandon Hopper | Ph.D. student Modesta Abugu is researching flavor compounds in sweetpotatoes with a goal of increasing consumption and improving global nutrition security....

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