Required Text:
Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
by Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak
Oxford University Press; ISBN: 978-0-19-530175-5
To order - Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
Required readings
The main readings given below are required readings for quizzes, the mid-term, and the final. For quizzes, you are responsible for the readings assigned up to and including the day of the quiz. Emphasis in quizzes and exams will be on familiarity with concepts, and example crops and issues, not technical details of genes, acres, etc. Look at old exams to get a better idea of the level of information needed. When it says "peruse only" you are responsible only for knowing what the document was about, which you can get from scanning the summary, section headings, figures, and tables. You do not need to read the text, but you will need to have scanned the article for 2-3 minutes to get the main points of what it's about.
| Week | Date | Topic | Readings | Text |
| 1 | Mar 29 | Class organization, rationale, goals. GMO and TOX issues | Tester Tomorrow's Table Book Rev Science 2008 Lemaux - Science record on GMO crop issues Lemaux 2008 – p. 773-778 |
Forward, intro |
| Mar 29 | Learn these terms/concepts from web/basic texts. |
Ch. 4 | ||
| Mar 31 | Plant genetic engineering methods | Agricultural Biotechnology: The GMO Debate Opposition to transgenic technologies: ideology, interests and collective action frames 2008 |
Ch. 6 | |
| 2 | Apr 5 | History of domestication and breeding; green revolution | Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication Diamond 2002 |
Ch. 1 |
| Apr 5 | ||||
| Apr 7 | Intellectual property in crop breeding and biotechnology | Farmer to farmer campaign on genetic engineering p. 1-17 Acceptable intellectual property - Hilgartner Schmeiser and Monsanto Science 2004 Patents, seed saving, and legal actions against farmers - Jones, p. 5-7 |
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| 3 | Apr 12 | Breeding and genomics concepts, application to animals | Animal Breeding Review Cal Ag Biotech 2006 Video overview of animal biotechnology (Downloadable, to be shown in class) |
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| Apr 12 | ||||
| Apr 14 | Animal biotechnology, cloning, rBST for milk production | Summary of risk assessment of GE salmon 2010 Animal biotech overview Nat Biotech 2005 Peruse only: |
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| 4 | Apr 19 | GMO crops and sustainability | Peruse Only: |
Ch. 2, 3, and 8 |
| Apr 19 | ||||
| Apr 21 | Gene flow and adventitious presence | Review of glyphosate resistant crops p. 1-5 Peruse only: |
Ch. 9 | |
| 5 | Apr 26 | Toxicology Basics | ||
| Apr 26 | Peruse only: Switzerland and plant rights Wall St. Journal 2008 New Nuffield Ethics report summary, pp. xxiii-xx - GMOs for the developing world |
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| Apr 28 | Natural toxins in food and environment | Biodiversity: Its Importance to Human Health Paracelsus to parascience: the environmental cancer distraction |
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| 6 | May 3 | MIDTERM - in class (includes entire text book) | ||
| May 3 |
Peruse only: Organic food nutrition rev Am J Clin Nutr 2009 |
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| May 5 | Risk assessment of chemicals | |||
| 7 | May 10 | Regulating GMOs, chemicals and pesticides |
Understanding the Role of Science in Regulation McHughen Regulation GM Crops 2006 Peruse only: |
Ch. 5 and 7 |
| May 10 | ||||
| May 12 | Forest Biotechnology | El-Lakany 2004 GM trees a threat? Unasylva 2004 Harry & Strauss 2010 – Biotech and GE in forest trees Peruse only: Strauss et al - Strangled at Birth - CBD and Tree Biotech - Nature Biotechnol 2009 |
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| 8 | May 17 | Developmental toxicology | ||
| May 17 | ||||
| May 19 | Bt corn and the StarLink saga | Starlink corn: a risk analysis Bt crops and mycotoxin reduction ISB 2008 Peruse only: |
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| 9 | May 24 | Bioreactor crops | Is the drought over for pharming? Science 2008 On risk & plant-based biopharmaceuticals Trends Biotech 2004 |
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| May 24 |
Dueling Visions at IAASTD - Science 2008 |
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| May 26 | Nanotechnology and toxicology | |||
| 10 | May 31 | Discussion panel 1: BPA ban/perchlorate regulation | The Toxic Origins of Disease 2007 |
Ch. 12 |
| May 31 | ||||
| June 2 | Discussion panel 2: Ban or label? GE salmon/Amylase corn | Labeling genetically modified foods: Communicating or creating confusion? Cloned animal labeling Nature Biotech 2008 Review: Summary of risk assessment of GE salmon 2010 U.S. Approves Corn Modified for Ethanol NY Times 2011 Peruse only: |
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| 11 | June 8 (noon, Pvy 108) |
FINAL EXAM | ||