Wow, whew and my goodness the pen must be a pretty mighty weapon indeed for me to draw fire from someone like Calestous Juma and for the sake of accuracy I'll pull his bona fides from the bio posted at the Harvard faculty site.
Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project. He directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and serves as Faculty Chair of Innovation for Economic Development executive program. Juma is a former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Founding Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi. He is co-chair of the African Union's High-Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation and a jury member of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He was Chancellor of the University of Guyana and has been elected to several scientific academies including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the African Academy of Sciences. He has won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He holds a doctorate in science and technology policy studies and has written widely on science, technology, and environment. Juma serves on the boards ofseveral international bodies andis editor of the International Journal of Technology and Globalisation and theInternational Journal of Biotechnology. His latest book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He is currently working on on books on engineering for development and resistance to new technologies. Follow @Calestous on Twitter
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/calestous-juma
Flagging the pro-gmo tweeter Karl under his @franknfoode account
Follow him on Twitter is exactly what I did and like anyone else who supports Monsanto's spread of genetically engineered, fee based food crops I have asked to see evidence of human health and safety study. Aside from all the other issues surrounding pesticide use and privatizing the food supply, if we don't know it is safe for people to eat the other issues are moot because it is being planted as a primary food source.
Like most of the biotech bloggers on Twitter he blocked me long ago for my insistence that before we debate any merits he might see with the gmo crops I needed to see some evidence of safety.
This was priceless, Juma told me I ought to defer to the science and he has a reputation to protect as Editor of the Biotechnology Journal and therefore I should be confident in his views. To which I replied I don't give a damn about image but public health & human rights.
The other night a tweeter @INTLRevolver whom I know as an opponent of gmo, happened to get one of the pro-biotech folks @franknfoode included in a Li paper thing that aggregates content. Being little Miss Helpful I flagged it for @INTELRevolver and said in passing the user blocks me, which most Monsanto PR folks on Twitter do, including @Calestous. Then I linked the Harvard bio to show how far the block policy goes among promoters of gmo misinformation. The MSM spin is that there is some debate about gmo, but reality is there is censorship and when the promoters meet the criticc they block them routinely, this isn't just me.
Moments later there was a reply from Juma saying he had unblocked me and the only reason I had been blocke in the first place was for name calling. That is totally untrue and anyone who follows me anywhere on any subject at all knows I don't support that from anyone whether you agree or disagree with my views. One of the best things for me about being totally honest and consistent is there's no need for a good memory and no confusion about what might have happened.
Unfortunately I didn't anticipate he would not stand by his words and would delete all the comments he made in the exchange but for the record I have screen shots of every word said by me and his finally accusation of me being a bully upon blocking me and deleting his Tweets.
Here he had said I am simply against Monsanto and there was no point trying to discuss science with someone closed minded. Please keep an eye out for any name calling or bullying by me in these! :~)
This is here simply to show no matter how lofty the title or how much money is behind them the powers supporting gmo have nothing but lies to use in attacking critics and one little old mom in New York City is classified as a bully for asking the Harvard Director of Globalization for Gates Foundation in Africa to show me a human health and safety study for the gmo foods.
The whole collection of screenshots is at Twitter and I'd challenge anyone to find any suggestion of bullying by me by the standards of polite discourse, never mind what flies on social media. As one of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill says, "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."
This is where Juma had apologized after saying I oppose biotechnology and my reply was that I had seen it used in medical situations with beneficial results and that his accusation was unfounded so he apologized.
The truth in this case is that there has never been any human health and safety testing for genetically modified foods. It is fed to us entirely on the weight of what Monsanto claims to believe and through the legislative magic of a loophole called substantial equivalent that allows igmo to be classified as equal to conventional foods if selected nutrient measures are similar. Don't take my word for that see the FDA deregulation!
http://www.fda.gov/Food/Biotechnology/Submissions/ucm161130.htm
When my train of questioning was not derailed by accusations of being closed minded or suggestions to buy his book Juma accused me of harassment but of course he has deleted all his words but you can look at all of mine for any such thing!
Karl tweets as @franknfoode and @biofortified but mostly he follows Juma and the others and repeats whatever they say and adds industry talking points. I never replied to him jumping on Jumas coat tails.
http://www.biofortified.org/about/board-of-directors/
http://www.biofortified.org/about/frank-n-foode/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pameladrew/sets/72157632555227522/with/8393257044/
