Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Congress Moves to Ban Frankenfish

Special interests trump science in the debate over transgenic salmon.

June 21, 2011

Ronald Bailey

AquaBounty Technologies has been seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for 15 years for its fast growing genetically-enhanced salmon. Scientific evidence so far suggests that the biotech salmon are good for the environment and good for consumers. However, wild salmon fishers afraid of competition have persuaded Congress to vote in favor of a ban on the biotech fish. Reason Science Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey explains why having Congress overrule science is a really bad idea.

Let Them Eat Frankenfish!

After 15 years, the FDA is about to let genetically modified fish enter the food supply. It's about time.

September 24, 2010

Katherine Mangu-Ward

On Monday, a panel of FDA advisers began two days of hearings on whether to allow the first genetically modified (GM) animal into the human food supply. And so far, they are skeptical. Such unnatural creatures have existed since the 1970s, but haven't become part of the common cuisine—and despite the protests of natural foodies everywhere, this needs to change.

The Government's Catastrophic Response to the Oil Disaster

Washington's reaction is causing greater damage than the event itself.

July 9, 2010

Jon Basil Utley

Incompetence has turned the Gulf oil tragedy into “Obama’s Katrina.” As more and more startling facts emerge we are finding almost criminal ineptness by Washington compounded by BP’s almost criminal negligence. As with many crises, Washington’s reactions cause greater damage than the event itself. Yet lurking in the mess are the extreme environmentalists staffing the Obama Administration with their declared agenda of shutting down all offshore oil drilling. The Sierra Club has bragged about how it helped shut down all new coal generating electricity plants. Other environmentalists are still happy that the Three Mile Island crisis succeeded in ending all new nuclear-generating power plants. Preventing new offshore oil drilling in Alaska is another of their primary objectives.

Sustainability Semantics

John Locke, the U.N., and how to figure out if an acre of land would rather be a swamp or a cornfield

July 6, 2010

Ronald Bailey

The word "sustainability" has appeared more than 3,000 times in major world publications over the last three months, according to the news search engine Nexis. But does anyone know what it really means? Two Michigan Technological University researchers, ecologist John Vucetich and ethicist Michael Nelson try to answer that question in their new paper, “Sustainability: Vulgar or Virtuous?,” in the current issue of the journal BioScience. “Too many environmental scientists think sustainability is primarily about documenting and protecting ecosystem health," they argue, "whereas too many engineers think sustainability is primarily about more efficiently meeting human needs."

Let Markets Save the Fish and Oceans

June 2, 2010, 9:08am

Samuel Staley

A new market-based strategy called "catch share" can discourage over fishing and encourage the growth of fish populations

Dam the Salmon

Environmentalists can't bring themselves to embrace any sacrifice

May 30, 2007

Shikha Dalmia

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