Stuart Strand

“One of the biggest threats to banana farming in East Africa is Banana Xanthomonas Wilt,” says Valentine Otang Ntui. Using CRISPR, his team—including Leena Tripathi—removed a gene that helps the bacteria infect plants. The result: disease-resistant bananas, while unedited ones succumbed. @MoroccoWNews buff.ly/4jJgXf8

🇺🇸 The US embraced GM crops. 🇪🇺 The EU restricted GM crops. Now: 🇺🇸 More food, less pesticide use. 🇪🇺 Lower yields, more imports. 🇺🇸 Corn yield: 10.8 tons/ha 🟢 🇪🇺 Corn yield: 5.9 tons/ha 🔴 The problem isn’t GMOs. The problem is bad policy.

Ag Scientist here: Welcome to starvation! BTW, Soviet Union & China tried something along these lines in 1950s & 1960s, killed millions of their people by the famines that ensued.

The biggest paradoxes of modern environmentalism? 🚨 They demand solutions for climate change and food security. 🚨 But they reject the best technologies to solve those problems. From GMOs to nuclear energy, ideology keeps blocking progress. Here’s why it’s a problem 🧵: 1/

Does regenerative agriculture bring any new practices? There are the soil health principles, and its goal of restoring soils, and lots of other ideas, but the practices remain the same.

One of the most dangerous things in history? When politics replaces science. That’s exactly what happened in the Soviet Union under Trofim Lysenko. A man whose pseudoscience led to famine, ruined careers, and millions of deaths. His ideology destroyed Soviet agriculture 🧵:

Germany shut down nuclear. Now it burns more coal. France kept nuclear. Now it has cleaner energy. Which country has one of the biggest energy policy failures in modern history?

OPENING WINDOWS ISN'T ENOUGH! 🌬️ Outdoor air can be up to 5x more polluted than indoor air. Don't rely on open windows for fresh air. Upgrade to a Healthy Air Medical Grade Air Purifier, proven to eliminate 99.99% of airborne impurities, including pollutants, allergens.

Air quality is getting worse in LA and elsewhere now that winds have slowed down. Indoor air filtration and masks are key.

A reminder that concentrating organic matter near the soil surface, as happens with no-till, can improve soil health/function without an overall increase in soil organic matter. csanr.wsu.edu/organic-matter…

@CCACoalition @UNEP @davidrkanter @FAOclimate @UNEPozone You are right about the dangers of nitrous oxide emissions. Let’s try something radical: genetically modified plants with nitrous oxidereductase. youtu.be/vHZZfKukT4M

This year’s extreme heat has reignited calls for action on greenhouse gas emissions, but there’s one super-pollutant we can’t afford to ignore: Nitrous Oxide! This compound: 🔥 Warms the planet hundreds of times faster than CO₂! ⚠️ Destroys the stratospheric ozone layer, exposing us to dangerous solar radiation! Learn more: unep.org/news-and-stori…

@RobSoil But more vulnerable to losses by leaching vs inhibitor-treated UAN and urea?

@ScottAdd5 Sorry if not clear. All N sources end up as nitrate... all are susceptible to leaching or wet denitrification. I was referring to N2O loss during nitrification. This step avoided by using NO3. No perfect solution... 4R and water management are key. Yes, field info available

Nitrous oxide from nitrification still causes confusion. Usually <1% of N, but may be much higher. lnkd.in/eDedxMAR This is NOT from N2O loss in wet soils Hayatsu reviewed mechanisms- N2O FORMED DURING NH2OH OXIDATION BY CHEM & BIOCHEM REACTIONS. lnkd.in/eKZQ2GFr

Urea fertilizer breaks down in soil to release ammonia, which microbes convert into nitrous oxide (N₂O), a greenhouse gas nearly 265 times more potent than CO₂ in trapping heat. This process contributes significantly to #globalwarming, making agriculture a major emitter. As stewards of the land, Vani - an organic farmer from Haripad (Kerala) - believes farmers have a moral responsibility to adopt sustainable practices. Switching to organic and natural alternatives like compost or biofertilizers can in fact reduce emissions while enriching the soil. #goodfoodmovement #organicfarming

"Nature does everything better than humans" is a foolish notion. Nature does not do farming better than humans. In fact, most of us would starve if we relied on nature for food. Neither is natural always better...csanr.wsu.edu/the-flawed-thi…

I’ve seen my share of anti-science activists. But few are as dangerous as Vandana Shiva. She brands herself as a "food sovereignty" advocate. In reality? She’s an activist spreading misinformation about GMOs, pesticides, and modern agriculture. Here’s the real story 🧵: 1/

Here's yet another example of consumer fraud from the @NonGMOProject. There are no GMO chickpeas anywhere. If you want to support farmers, please don't buy products with the fake logo.

We’re still working on getting approval from USDA for sale of our indoor plants in the USA. Super pothos @origenair is available commercially in Canada. Lucky Canadians! doi.org/10.1021/acs.es…