The Open Market Blog

• By: Lene Johansen
• 06/26/2008

I seem to remember from statistics class that anything less than 95 percent probability is junk science. This is an editorial from the most recent…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/13/2008

OK, so say we accept the premise that CO2 causes global warming, is there any case where energy use will be beneficial for the planet?…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/13/2008

Humane Society of the US just released another expose video on animal cruelty in the meat industry. They argue for more…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/12/2008

New Scientist recently mentioned a really cool method for cellulose based ethanol in their daily 60-second science podcast. During the second…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/07/2008

The Scientist has research grants as a theme this month, and the cover story tries to figure out what happens when…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

Something is wrong with the FDA. They doubled their staffing at the beginning of the 1990’s, which lead to a temporary decrease in processing speed,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

As reports of food prices going through the ceiling are trickling in, some of the countries that traditionally reject plants bred with molecular plant breeding…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/06/2008

As a science writer with a liberal arts/ social studies background, I frequently run into brick walls where I do not have detailed enough knowledge…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

How long should it take to lift an import ban, when all the parties agree that there are no health safety or science issues involved?…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

EU was supposed to have an authoritative discussion on plants bred with molecular plant breeding techniques (PMB’s) in May. The organization has been fined by…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 05/05/2008

Many people I know are passionate about eradicating poverty. Out of all the ailments that humans suffer from, poverty is one of the cruelest and…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/23/2008

As food prices soars to new heights, researchers at Texas A&M makes a potentially revolutionary discovery. They discover a plant gene for saline tolerance…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/22/2008

Brian Williams and his team at NBC announced Sweden to be the greenest country on the planet, and I sure hope their correspondent enjoyed…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/22/2008

We continue our amazing series about tummy ecology. About 1.5 kilo of your body weight is the bacterial flora in your tummy, and…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/21/2008

The Green Issue of Vanity fair has already drawn fair critique for being campaign journalism with one-sided sourcing. My primary interest was a story…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/21/2008

This week brought two great writers and arbiters of truth to Washington, DC. Authors Richard North and Christopher Booker were in town to talk about…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 04/09/2008

This excerpt from an upcoming book called the Animal Research War by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker. Both are affiliated with National…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/31/2008

Business incubators have long been a place where small companies can get help that makes them grow to the next level. A non-profit in Hyderabad…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/28/2008

Morning edition had an amazing story about the government race to patent the atom bomb this morning. The patenting process actually jeopardized the secrecy…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/26/2008

The “healthier food in the school lunch” story is inevitable if you work for a local paper, but it never excited me. No matter what…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/26/2008

The Europeans quarrel with plants bred with molecular plant breeding methods continue. French farmers are pushing for it, but they lost the court case…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

This is an amazing story of science success, and of consumer loss. Phillip Larkin got funding from Tasmanian Alkaloids to create a more potent poppy…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

If you think that picking up the phone book sized federal budget is a bit daunting, you might want to get the graphic version.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/25/2008

Just an interesting FYI.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

The suppliers, producers, and retailers in the industrial organic food chain have long lamented about the possibility of grains from plants bred with molecular plant…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

Kate Ackley wrote a great story about the most recent attempt to create a regulatory approval process for generic biotechnology medications on the Hill.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/24/2008

I have lost the count on the number of stories I have seen about coral reefs dying out because of global warming.  A recent…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/17/2008

A U.S. carbon-trade exchange opened up for business today, amidst the financial chaos created by the Fed bail out of Bear Stearns. It…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/17/2008

The Cultural Revolution has finally made it to Norway. The Labor party’s Minister of Culture has spent the summer traversing the music festivals of the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

The newly elected government of Thailand is continuing the previous government’s disregard for international patent law and for the health of its citizens. Now the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

While demand for the healthier low-lineolic acid soybean is soaring, because everyone and his mother wants food with healthier fats, the EU is…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/11/2008

Sweden is no longer the country with the highest tax burden, Denmark has unseated it from that throne.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The British Prime Minister’s incoming science adviser, Professor John Beddington, says that food crisis will take hold before climate change. One of the problems…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The Interior Department’s Inspector General has started preliminary investigations into why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delaying its decision on whether polar…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/10/2008

The battle over recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBST) continues, and it seems like Monsanto has finally learned how to fight the policy battle. Although…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/07/2008

The final verdict in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) trial for the arson of the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture is finally in,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/06/2008

I adore Matthew Nisbeth’s research but he is off his rocker in this comment he posted on his blog and that he presented in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/06/2008

Last night I got home from an exhausting and exhilarating trip to New York City. During my stay, I barely got out of the hotel…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 03/04/2008

James Lovelock is the originator of the Gaia myth and convinced that the world is coming to an end, soon, because of global warming is…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/26/2008

March wheat futures went for a record $24 yesterday, while the May wheat futures rose the maximum 90 cents allowed to $11.99 a bushel…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Al Gore had to take the two biggest spin words of 2007 and combine them into a really scary scenario at a UN meeting with…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Food prices are going up. Since the green revolution in the 1940s-1960s food prices have been going down, but now they are on an…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

Two groups release reports about the same topic at the same time, their conclusions are diametrically opposed to each other. What is a poor reporter…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/20/2008

I’ve been saying the 147 million pound beef recall will lead to calls for more regulation and better regulation, even though the regulatory regime in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 02/19/2008

The USDA started off this week with a historic recall after an investigation revealed violation of food safety regulations in a California meat processing…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/27/2008

Stimulus package or more deficit spending? I tend to agree with Prof. Samwick in his commentary on “Marketplace” last Friday: It is deficit spending.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/27/2008

It seems the anti-biotechnology lobby is bringing out the big guns to prevent the new Roundup Ready sugar beet to have its first commercial growing…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/27/2008

The global temperature has been stable since 1998 according to Ole Humlum at the University of Oslo. In the largest paper in Norway, he…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/25/2008

Germany is opening the door for a corn variety bred with molecular plant breeding methods, and neither activists nor Monsanto is happy about the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/22/2008

Some legislators, including Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) are now hollowing out an age old principle of FDA marketing regulations by promoting mandatory labeling…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/22/2008

Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer who was convicted of contract breach in the Canadian Supreme Court because he was brown bagging Monsanto seed against the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/22/2008

The US is gearing up for another showdown with the EU over protectionist trade barriers based on environmental concerns. French president Sarkozy suggested a…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/21/2008

Pennsylvania is backing down from its labeling ban after pressure from consumer groups. Diaries can now label products as being produced without artificial growth…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/18/2008

I wrote about the French January 9 moratorium on plants created with molecular plant breeding techniques previously. I thought the reports that stated there…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/18/2008

On the tack board over my desk is a cardboard box from a Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia bar. I love Ben & Jerry’s, but…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/18/2008

Richard Morrison could yesterday report that FDA had approved meat from cloned animals for human consumption. USDA is evidently not in agreement,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/15/2008

EU is giving itself permission to set price floors according to EU Trade Comissioner Peter Mandelson. Norway recently complained to World Trade Organization that…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

Norwegians have been shooked to their core as the queen of the Labor movement and former Norwegian prime minister has been caught receiving free…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

The Netherlands is officially on my list of countries with cool research and development of alternative energy sources. I have previously written about nightclubs…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

I doubt eco-terrorist Jose Bove’s decision to hunger strike earlier this month actually had an impact, but the French have now imposed a…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/14/2008

Climate change is used to justify the most insane political decisions, but for once it is used for a sensible decision. Although there is no…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/08/2008

Norwegian author Onar Ã…m, took IPCC chairman Rajendra Kumar Pachauri to task at a debate at the University of Stavanger, Norway on Monday this…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 01/08/2008

My dear sister is of the worried sort, but there is usually not much to worry about down in the idyllic little corner of her…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/28/2007

There is nothing new in a New York Times story about the GMO standoff in Europe. It is a political standoff, caused by activists…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/28/2007

Yule never came to Rosia Montana, Romania, this year. With the help of activists such as billionaire George Soros and British actress Vanessa Redgrave, it…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Monsanto has talked the federal government into giving farmers a break on their crop insurance if they use crops that produce pesticides. If other…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Now the Italian food police are after my cultural heritage! The Italian version of FDA is concerned that Swedish gingerbread has too high levels…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

I have an issue with this holiday fuzzy feeling piece from Marketplace, because the anchor’s intro goes as follows: “Crisco is a staple in…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 12/26/2007

Mercury is illegal in Norway from January 1, 2008, or so they want us to think. The Minister of the Environment duly noted the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/12/2007

I have recently published several op eds on how the European Right has adopted the environmental policy of the Left, embracing greater interventions in the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/12/2007

A recent survey in Britain on which laws Brits regards as their most stupid laws make a case for sunset provisions. The laws include…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/08/2007

This study shows an increase in pedestrian deaths in afternoon rush hour traffic in November every year and the researchers are pinning it on the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/08/2007

Politics is a dirty business anywhere, but this story shows how dirty it is, and how cheap you can buy a vote in the…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/07/2007

You might have heard about the chaos surrounding the Swedish executive branch lately. First, an undersecretary that was on call for the evening was…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/07/2007

Voters seemed intent on tightening up the public belt buckle if we are to believe this story from AP of all the ballot initiatives…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/05/2007

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Florida) has coined this apt term for companies such as Concurrent Technologies during a debate about earmarks for a center Concurrent was…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/01/2007

Iowa has decided to put a tax on pumpkins that are not consumed. You have to sign a form promising to eat the thing…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 11/01/2007

Just as France has put a temporary freeze on growing corn bred with molecular plant breeding techniques, Austria fails to create a majority within…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/30/2007

The other side of India’s boom is the corruption and lack of protection of rights for the poor. This story from NPR about a…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/30/2007

Nice commentary by Jonathan Chait on Marketplace last week about the problem with farm subsidies.

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/30/2007

As EU allows four more GMO crops (crops created with molecular plant breeding techniques), the new president of France puts a temporary “freeze”…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/29/2007

Owner of one of the largest food retailers in Norway, Trond Lykke says organic food is selfish because it requires more land area and…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/29/2007

Regulatory insanity in the EU has been halted for another four years thanks to a concerted effort by lobby groups. The EU will, for now,…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/17/2007

A world where there’s not enough electricity. This story I found in the Philadelphia Inquirer this weekend is a view into where life will…

• By: Lene Johansen
• 10/12/2007

I am ashamed to be Norwegian today. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose to give the prize to a shyster and a bureaucratic ministry of truth.