“Talk Nerdy to Me” About GMO Food & Science (VIDEO)

For the past week, I’ve gotten daily emails about a single post on the web — Huffington Post has a “Talk Nerdy to Me” series of videos that cover all sorts of science topics. The most recent one is talking nerdy about GMOs (genetically modified organisms or biotech if you prefer). And since I work with a lot of agricultural technologies, including GMOs/biotechnology, lots of people have sent me the link.

The reason? It expresses the viewpoint of so many of us who work with GMOs — we care deeply about the environment, want to leave the world in a better place than we found it; we care about food — the nutrition we put on our tables, the farmers producing it or gardening for ourselves and the folks who don’t have enough of it too and other things that can

Last time I tweeted it, it seemed like several of my peeps hadn’t gotten inundated with the email so I decided I better put it out here just in case anyone has missed it.  The video starts:

KEVIN FOLTA: I look at the scientists around me and the scientists I know, and you look at the anti-GMO activists, and we agree with them on just about every issue. We care about the environment, we’re into worker safety, we want to feed more people better nutritious food, we want to have sustainable ways to grow food, but we differ on this one area. And it’s really disappointing because we know a lot about it, we understand it, we understand it inside and out, so to us it doesn’t scare us.

Who I Turn To When I Need Someone to “Talk Nerdy to Me”

If you’d like to hear from more scientists about the information they have on GMO crops and foods, here are some of the third party blogs I read or who I follow on Twitter and Google Plus:

• Kevin Folta — Kevin is the scientist in the video. His bio on his blog says he is “A scientist in a scientifically illiterate nation at a time when we need science the most.”  He’s with the University of Florida and has a self-titled website that brings together his online presence. He writes for two blogs Illumination- Science, Culture and Craziness and Petal to the Metal- The science of Amoprhophallus. He’s also on Twitter as @KevinFolta and is also on Google+ at Kevin Folta.
• Biofortified is probably the one I read most. Biofortified it is “a group website devoted to providing factual information and fostering discussion about agriculture, especially plant genetics and genetic engineering.” And has a full social media presence on the following channels: Facebook, Google+, Storify, Technorati, Twitter, and you can even buy things with Frank N Foode on them through Zazzle. There are a few scientists I’ve gotten to know since I’ve started reading Biofortified (and I’ve been lucky enough to meet a couple of them in great moments of agnerdom):
  • Anastasia Bodnar (shown in the photo at right when I had a chance to visit with her in DC) is the face of @geneticmaize on Twitter and of course on Google+.
  • I met Karl Haro von Mogel at the tri societies meeting one year. He’s on Twitter as @kjhvm.
  • Steve Savage writes for Biofortified sometimes and also has his own blog Applied Mythology, he doesn’t tweet alot, but when he does it is as @GrapeDoc.
• CS Prakash of Tuskeegee University is the force behind AgBioWorld which has been active on the web and email services for a very long time. He’s got the @AgBioWorld Twitter Feed as well as a Facebook page. And as I looked at AgBioWorld website, I realized Prakash also has a list of biotech experts on there. I need to see who all else I’m missing in social media!
• Calestous Juma is with Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and Technology as Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project and lends the unique perspective created by his African background &  regularly as he posts to Twitter as @calestous.
• Mary Mangan is a scientist in the northeast who tweets as @mem_somerville and is a Google+ person too.
• Andrew Apel is a biotech expert in the midwest. He’s @agbioeye on Twitter.
• David Tribe is an Australian researcher who is @GMOPundit on Twitter and blogs as GMOPundit, as well as posts information through Google+.
• Pam Ronald is with the University of California at Davis. She blogs at Tomorrow’s Table on Science Blogs tweets at @pcronald and is on Google+ too

I am sure I missed a lot of really great folks who when I have questions online are willing to “talk nerdy to me” but this gives you some of the folks to start with at least.

What scientists do you talk nerdy to?