Pamela Ronald
Pamela Ronald is Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis. She who wrote a book with her organic farmer husband, Raoul Adamchak, suggesting that organic and GM farming could co-exist. The book is called Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. Ronald runs a blog called Tomorrow's Table.[1]
Ronald has her own laboratory at UC Davis, called the Ronald Laboratory. According to her biography on the UC Davis website:
- Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding, both of which are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa.[2]
History
Ronald cloned the disease- and flood-resistant gene from a wild rice variety found in Mali and UC Davis patented it. According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, Ronald "encouraged the university to create a benefit-sharing fund" to give something back to the people of Mali:
- first, scholarships for Mali students and later, disease-resistant rice to help feed the impoverished country. There was talk of future health clinics and conservation programs, even using the gene to battle hunger and poverty in other corners of the world.[3]
However, reported the Sacramento Bee:
- Eight years later, no help whatsoever has arrived. The Genetic Resources Recognition Fund that UC Davis officials hoped would turn university patents and corporate profit into a model of social responsibility has a balance of zero.[4]
Affiliations
- Monsanto: The University of California, Davis College of Biological Sciences runs a Monsanto Fellowship Program. It says, "These fellowships are made possible through an endowed student fellowship fund created by a gift from the Monsanto Corporation."[5]
- Genetic Resources Recognition Fund: The University of California, Davis has set up the Genetic Resources Recognition Fund (GRRF). According to the Ronald Laboratory website: "Part of the royalties derived from the licensing of academic discoveries using developing countries' materials can be used to fund fellowships, land conservation efforts, or other projects that will benefit the developing nation partner." Pamela Ronald is the contact name given.[6]
Notes
- ↑ home page, Tomorrow's Table blog, accessed 23 May 2010
- ↑ Ronald Biography, Ronald Laboratory website, accessed 23 May 2010
- ↑ Tom Knudson, Seeds of Doubt: Mali's people reap no reward from cloned wild-rice gene, Sacramento Bee, 6 Jun 2004, acc 23 May 2010
- ↑ Tom Knudson, Seeds of Doubt: Mali's people reap no reward from cloned wild-rice gene, Sacramento Bee, 6 Jun 2004, acc 23 May 2010
- ↑ Monsanto Fellowship Program, UC Davis College of Biological Sciences website, acc 23 May 2010
- ↑ Genetic Resources Recognition Fund (GRRF), Ronald Laboratory website, acc 23 May 2010
