While we were in Baltimore, we had to stop by Charm City Cakes to take a photo of the shop. We love watching Ace of Cakes of The Food Network. The cakes are works of art and the artists seem fun and laid-back, but dedicated to their craft.
When in Baltimore, the locals suggested we walk around Little Italy and indulge our sweet tooth at Vaccaro's.
Supporters of GM agriculture have had a long row to hoe in achieving public acceptance for the safety of this important technology. Controversy has surrounded the foundational technology of recombinant DNA methods, the application of genetic engineering to crop plants and livestock, the safety of GM “Frankenfoods” as sources of human and animal nutrition, the potential environmental threats posed by the possible development of GM “superweeds,” and the corporate control over GM agriculture exercised by a relatively small number of agricultural companies armed with vast financial resources and powerful patent portfolios. Nevertheless, as exemplified by the United States and Canadian Supreme Court cases, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, J.E.M. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred, Monsanto Canada v. Schmeiser, and Monsanto v. Geertson, the law, and the society it reflects, have finally managed to accommodate the important technology of GM agriculture. However, a new paradigm in biological science — synthetic biology — has begun to remake the face of GM agriculture. Synthetic biology seeks to purge biology of some of its fundamental inefficiencies through the rigorous application of engineering principles. Rather than tinkering around the edges, biological engineering would remake living organisms from first principles, and employ standard parts to make qualitatively new biological devices and systems. Traditional arguments that GM crops and livestock are simply slightly-modified versions of their conventional counterparts may no longer be either appropriate or accurate in the face of synthetic biological approaches to engineering new plants. Moreover, both synthetic biology and do-it-yourself biology (“DIYbio”) seek to shift biological research and development out of traditional laboratories and the hands of credentialed biologists, and, instead, allow any interested and motivated user to become a research biologist, biotinkerer, or synthetic biological engineer. Home and community laboratories are already springing up at a rapid rate, and farm laboratories are sure to follow, as participation in this new, open, and democratized movement burgeons. In short, large numbers of individual and collaborating users, spread over many small and local laboratories, are beginning fundamentally to reengineer genes, cells, organisms, and systems composed of organisms or their substituent parts. The comfortable acceptance of GMOs at which society has only recently begun to arrive may soon be misplaced in the face of both fundamentally new scientific approaches and the democratization of innovation. The results for agriculture may be beneficial: enhanced rates of agricultural innovation through new biological approaches and wide participation. Moreover, synthetic biological agriculture (“synagriculture”) may prove to be as safe as GM agriculture or even conventional agriculture. However, assumptions about current GM crops and livestock may not easily apply to synthetic versions, nor may the current paradigm of GM regulation be possible when innovation becomes atomized among millions of farmers. Some of the “settled” legal issues surrounding GM crops and livestock may have to be revisited as new perceived or actual threats and benefits arise. One irony may be that the same patent system that has so often been criticized in the past for providing agricultural companies with too much control over farmers may soon represent one of the most effective methods for monitoring and regulating GM agricultural innovation. Although some farmer innovators may eschew patent coverage for their agricultural inventions, others may opt to seek patent protection for their innovative new synthetic crops and livestock. Because the USPTO will have to examine any new GM crop inventions prior to issuing letters patent, disclosures to the USPTO synthetic biological inventors who opt for patent protection may become a vital centralized locus for monitoring and regulating otherwise highly-decentralized synagricultural innovation. New methods of biological engineering and new models of user, collaborative, and open innovation are soon to affect the trajectory of GM agricultural innovation. Even if such changes turn out to be salutary, they will be changes nevertheless. To ensure that society receives the full benefits of open and democratized synthetic biological innovation in crops and livestock, it would be well and wise for the law to prepare itself to reexamine the brave new world of synagriculture with brand new eyes.Henri Alain once wrote that "Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days." Toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin.
Today, the FDA announced the issuance of its Draft Guidance on The Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobials in Food-Producing Animals. FDA's press release states that this guidance is "intended to help reduce the development of resistance to medically important antimicrobial drugs" and calls for their "judicious [use] in animal agriculture."
With “Poisoned,” Jeff Benedict manages to deliver the full literary experience of a medico-legal thriller in a work of nonfiction that, fortuitously enough, could not be more relevant to recent headlines. . . .
Over a period of a few weeks, more than 700 cases scattered across four Western states; four children died gruesomely, with bleeding intestines and kidney failure. But Mr. Benedict, a lawyer turned journalist, pays relatively little attention to the story’s medical complexities; his focus is the gruesome and complicated legal tangle that ensued.Poisoned, however is about more than the legal tangle. It is a story about the people in the middle of that tangle. While Bill Marler is the central character, the personal struggle of nine-year old Brianne Kiner and her family is a primary focus. Brianne was "given up for dead in the intensive care unit, only to survive with significant disabilities." Moreover, the personal stories of the Jack in the Box executives are highlighted. And, the story would not be complete without the colorful defense attorney, Bob Piper, "a stout, hard-drinking man who sported pictures of nude women on his suspenders" and an attorney "known to be devastatingly effective in court."
It was a humid evening and all we wanted was a casual spot and some cold beer. Luckily, someone had recommended we check out RFD (Regional Food and Drink) while we were visiting Washington, DC.
We wandered around Penn Quarter in DC in search of a lively and sophisticated place to grab a late-night drink. With people dining on the patio and hovering around the bar, Proof looked like the spot we wanted.
