Conference on Food, Famine and Future Technologies

Appignani Bioethics Center

in collaboration with

The University of Montreal: Bioethics Programs present:

Food, Famine, and Future Technologies:

Ethical Dilemmas in a Hungry World

May 22-23, 2009 in NYC

Cocktail Reception: Friday, May 22, 2009, 6:00 PM - 9:30 PM

Location: Tudor Hotel at the United Nations, New York City, 304 E 42nd St. (between 1st and 2nd Ave), New York, NY 10017. Mediterranean food and wine will be served. Featured at the reception will be an Argentinean Tango performance by Laura Real., www.lauratango.com at www.tudorhotelny.com

Conference: Friday and Saturday, May 22-23, 8:30 AM-6:30 PM, 6:30 PM-9:30 PM cocktail reception

Conference room: 777 UN Plazas, 2nd Floor, (44th St and 1st Ave), New York 10017

Taking a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to addressing ethical dilemmas raised by genomic applications in agriculture, conference topics include agri-genomic innovations and their impact on society as a whole and environmental, economic, ethical, and social issues within agri-genomics.

The Conference will cover the following topics:

• Genomics research in agriculture (agri-genomics) and its diverse applications

• Consumers' perception and the media

• How to benefit human health and the food supply using genomic crops

• Environmental, economic, ethical, and social impacts within agri-genomics applications

• Lessons learned from genetically modified organisms for health and development

• Environmental safety and sustainability

• Development of sustainable nutrition for growing populations

• How to optimize stakeholder competition and cooperation

These topics will be addressed through paper presentations and panel discussions. The deadline for the submission of abstracts (no more than 150 words) is April 15, 2009. Send them electronically to: alita@americanhumanist.org or beatrice.godard@umontreal.ca.

Accepted papers will be peer-reviewed and published in our conference proceedings. Virtual registrations will also be available for those unable to attend the conference-this allows you to submit a paper for review and possible publication. The conference is open to the general public.

The address for the submission of abstracts/papers, registration and inquiries is:

P.O. Box 4104, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10162

Phone: (212) 687-3324 analita@americanhumanist.org

Registration forms and other details are posted at www.humanistbioethics.org and www.omics-ethics.org

Registration fee is $100 and students' fee is $50. All fees are payable by check to the address above by April 15, 2009 or at the conference desk. Registration fees include participation in all sessions, conference kit, refreshments and coffee breaks, and cocktail reception.

*One can attend the cocktail reception only and pay at the door, for a fee of $55.

For more details about the conference please check: www.humanistbioethics.org or

www.omics-ethics.org

HFCS Contains Mercury

About six months ago, give or take, I started seeing these commercials on television advertising how high fructose corn syrup is just fine for you. My first thought, on seeing them, was that obviously Michael Pollan has had a huge impact on the food industry, or at least HFCS consumption! The advertisements, for those who have managed to miss them, are sponsored by the Corn Refiners Association, basically shows someone offering another person something made with HFCS, the second person freaking out, and the first person talking them into it by saying that it's perfectly fine for you. (Implying, of course, that people who opt not to consume HFCS haven't done their research and are just parroting everyone else.)

Here's the first commercial produced, so those of you who haven't seen it can get an idea for what the commercials are like:


I wonder if they're going to keep airing those advertisements, now that a new study has shown that many products containing HFCS contain mercury, and another study suggests that it's the corn itself that's contaminated.
-Kelly Hills

For Just a Dollar a Day...

Could you feed yourself for a dollar a day? That's the question two social justice teachers in California asked themselves in September, and they blogged the month long results.

This might not be news for a lot of people, since it seems like the couple received some pretty significant press. But I can do a good job at hiding from the media when I want to, and I managed to miss this particular story. In part, I find myself intrigued by the idea of cutting cost and unhealthy ingredients from my diet, as well as reducing portion sizes. It's hard to argue with the idea that as a country and on the whole, we eat too much, and too much of the wrong things.

The things Christopher and Katie discovered won't be a shock to anyone who's read Michael Pollan. Fresh fruits and vegetables will disappear from your diet, and if you want to genuinely find something even moderately healthy, you will have to make it - from scratch - yourself. It takes time and saps energy.

While this might just seem like a stunt to get attention, keep in mind that living in poverty is defined as living off $1 a day for food. Also keep in mind that Pablo Monsivais and Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington have recently determined that as junk food becomes cheaper ($1.76/1,000 kcal), the cost of nutrient-rich, low calorie foods continues to skyrocket ($18.16/1,000 kcal).

The holidays tend to be a time of excess when it comes to food, so it might not be the best time to suggest looking at your own grocery budget. But it might be eye opening to figure out just how much it costs you to live per day, at least when it comes to food and liquids. Eye opening doesn't necessarily mean change, but a spot of awareness never hurts.
-Kelly Hills

A Month Without Plastics

Over on the BBC website, reporter Chris Jeavans is blogging about her August challenge: to live a month without buying or accepting anything wrapped in or made with plastic. Why? Because even though we're all repeatedly implored to reduce, reuse and recycle, plastics are still one of the most common things to make it into our trash, our landfills, and our oceans. So she wanted to track exactly how life would change if she gave up plastics - first, of course, tracking how much plastics she and her family used over the course of one month.

The numbers were surprising:

603 items, including:

* 36 carrier bags
* 67 food packaging bags and films such as bread bags, cheese wrappers (and a jumbo pack of Maltesers!)
* 23 polystyrene tea cups with lids and 24 coffee cup lids
* 15 fruit punnets and vegetable trays
* 13 yoghurt pots
* 16 water bottles, 10 milk bottles, 7 juice bottles
* Two toothbrushes

Probably the least pretty aspect to my household's waste at the moment comes in the form of disposable nappies. Our 18-month-old son gets through four or so a day so that's about 120 a month, plus individual nappy sacks, nappy bin bags and wipes, which go straight into landfill.

Chris has blogged near-daily about her experiences, and it's interesting - not only to see how she is navigating shopping and childcare and the like sans plastics, but to learn more about plastics, where they're hidden in our food and consumer goods supplies, and how they're made.

And I'll admit, for just a moment, I thought it might be interesting to repeat her experiment on this side of the pond. After all, I live in an area rich with local farms, where coffee shops push bringing in your own mugs instead of using disposable cups, and nearly everyone has totes they use at least part of the time while grocery shopping.

Unfortunately, I realized relatively quickly that my cats require food and litter, which is automatically going to guarantee buying some plastics (bags of both generally are lined in plastic). The same for prescriptions. I have to order textbooks - no way to get around plastics there. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that while I certainly can reduce consumption and focus on reusing, it would be nearly impossible for me to eliminate plastics from my life.

So what about it - given the significant environmental and health concerns around the use and production of plastics, could you give up plastics in your life? For a week, a month, or longer?

-Kelly Hills

Grocery Store Wars, featuring Cuke Skywalker and Obi Wan Cannoli

Ok, in light of all the recent food ethics posts here, other bioethics blogs, and references to Michael Pollan, someone was bound to make a YouTube video that makes fun of the 'ways of the farm' -- you know, the field that gives rise to all things edible. It pits the lovely organic rebel Princess Lettuce against the 'evil' genetically modified Darth Tater:



So go ahead, have a laugh! Who said bioethicists don't have a sense of humor?

A Gourmet Q&A

We're unashamed fans of Michael Pollan around here, so it when I came across this Q&A with him on Gourmet's website, sharing it was a no-brainer. Pollan is doing the interview rounds talking about his new book, In Defense of Food (currently sitting on my nightstand awaiting a few hours of spare time), and in this particular interview talks about the inspiration for the new book, why cliche's about food matter, and uh... apparently how to survive on a diet of primarily whale blubber. Well worth the read - after all, you never know when you'll be stuck in the arctic wilderness with nothing but a whale carcass.
-Kelly