-
Featured Authors
-
Archives
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
-
Meta
Author Archive: Karen Batra
Karen Batra is Director of Food & Agriculture Communications, and has worked for BIO since 2008. Having lived in the Washington, D.C. area for more than 20 years, Karen has worked for four major national trade associations specializing in communications and media relations, most recently at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
What Karen likes best about BIO, aside from her uber-talented colleagues, is working to promote a technology that truly helps to heal, feed and fuel the world. In the food & ag sector, we aim to help farmers do what they do best – grow the most abundant, most affordable and safest food supply in the world.
Karen’s favorite biotech food is papaya, and her favorite genetically engineered animal is the spidey-goat. Karen also has two Glofish, Redfish and Bluefish, who live with their non-biotech cousin, Peachy the Snail.Latest Posts
Think Organic Farming is Better for the Environment? Think Again.
The eighth annual Global Impacts Study released this week by PG Economics quantifies the environmental benefits gained from the use of biotech crops. “We’ve seen a significant reduction in the use of chemical insecticides with biotech crops,” said Dr. Cathleen Enright, BIO’s executive vice president for food and agriculture. “Since 1996 and the advent of agricultural biotechnology, farmers growing these crops have switched to more benign herbicides to help control weeds.” Enright adds, “The shift Read More >
Don’t Misrepresent the Farmer Assurance Provision
There has been quite a lot of hoopla in the anti-biotech community over a tiny provision in the spending bill recently signed by President Obama. The “Farmer Assurance Provision” protects farmers and growers when a previously approved and deregulated biotech seed becomes the subject of frivolous lawsuits. Opposition groups such as the Center for Food Safety use the judicial system to challenge USDA’s regulatory authority that governs biotech crops and to potentially halt the use of the Read More >
A Scientist Pope and High-Tech Catholicism
The USA Today ran an op-ed authored by John Rigolizzo, a New Jersey farmer and a volunteer board member of Truth About Trade & Technology: “As Catholic cardinals selected Pope Francis in Rome, we watched an ancient church at its most medieval: obedient to tradition, cloaked in secrecy, and waiting for white smoke. The papal conclave appeared positively anti-modern. Yet in another sense, the Vatican stands in the vanguard of science and technology. It’s one Read More >
Debunking Ag Biotech’s Top 5 Myths
On Reason.com, award-winning science correspondent Ronald Bailey takes on the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), an organization opposed to crop biotechnology. IRT published a list of reasons to avoid GMOs. Bailey says, “it’s a mish-mash of misinformation and disinformation. All of the institute’s assertions are unfounded.” In a detailed article chock full of scientific cites, Bailey debunks the following IRT Myths: 1. “GMOs Are Unhealthy” 2. “GMOs Increase Herbicide Use” 3. “Genetic Engineering Creates Dangerous Read More >
Face of a Giant Agribusiness
One of the more surprising items I saw in the media recently was on the Huffington Post blog. The HuffPost blog promises “fresh takes,” but this outlet is often critical of mainstream agriculture and large-scale food production – ironically, the very essence of how we feed 7 billion people in this world. But this post from Noah Hultgren, a young corn farmer from Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, puts a fresh face on mainstream agriculture and large-scale Read More >
