“Just a girdle.” In an unsettling update to the recent harness-wearing whale news story in which a harnessed whale believed escaped from the Russian military was found wearing a harness that could be weaponized, it was revealed that President Trump wears a similar harness. The evidence — a series of shirtless photographs of the president showing a similar harness to the whale — was leaked from government e-mails by a mysterious hacker known as Stiffbrim and released to news media. The attendant furor and disruption in the White House effec ..read more

Originally posted by The Bridge on May 15, 2014 in 2014 Issues, Columns, May 15 2014, Taste of NECI by Darryl Benjamin, NECI Writing and Marketing Core Academic Instructor Traveling 16 hours by nonstop air travel was not my idea of a good time. My girlfriend’s son had taken a job teaching English to young children in Taipei, Taiwan after graduating from college. Three months later, we decided to visit him. To be truthful, I wasn’t certain where Taiwan was ..read more

Originally Posted by The Bridge on October 17, 2012 Issues, Essays, Features, Food, News & Features by Darryl Benjamin When Cheryl Flanagan moved to Montpelier two and a half years ago, her husband was disabled. She was working part time. Although her family of four was on food stamps, it wasn’t enough: Halfway through the month they ran out of food. For two weeks they would skimp by on little or nothing. To make matters worse, Flanagan suffered from anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. “Our income was $1,800 per month,” she said. “We did ..read more

—New Department of Biotech and Food Announced BREAKING NEWS WASHINGTON, March 12, 2019 — In a stunning, timely move, the USDA and FDA have collaborated to form a jointly managed Department of Biotech and Food (DBF) that opened for business on March 1, 2019. The alliance reflects sorely needed leadership in the rapidly developing food industry. The Department of Biotech and Food will oversee expansion of all new science-based food initiatives, including GMOs, nanofoods, CRISPR-cas9 gene edited foods, and lab-cultured, or “clean” meat. As their first order of business, the DBF issu ..read more

I delivered this workshop on January 30, 2019, at The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke MA. More than 10 farms from the Pioneer Valley were represented by the attendees. The workshop was sponsored by an admirable nonprofit, CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). Click HERE for a description of the workshop! Click HERE for a video of the work ..read more

I am happy to announce I will be delivering a workshop at UConn Storrs next Wednesday on Lab-Cultured Meat! The post Workshop at UConn Storrs appeared first on Promoting Sustainable Food Systems ..read more

April 22, 2017 UMass Amherst  Stockbridge School of Agriculture Online Student Donna Turner Woods Interviews Darryl Benjamin on “Nanotechnology in Agriculture and Food” for her final paper in Professor Renee Ciulla’s Global Food Systems class. DTW: Since we know what Nanotechnology is and how it was originally being used for replication of matter, should there be concern if it used in agriculture – crops and livestock, and human and animal consumption that replication of cells will take place?  Meaning once ingested, the replication proce ..read more

 [Originally posted July 8, 2012] BREAKING NEWS: MONSANTO ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO THE SUN CREVE COEUR, MISSOURI, June 30 — in a ground-breaking move, Monsanto, a multi-national biotechnology corporation, acquired rights to the sun in a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision, led by Clarence Thomas, was hailed by Monsanto President and CEO Hugh Grant as “good news for food producers, food consumers, and the future of humanity.” Monsanto is known worldwide for its Roundup brand, an herbicide that works in conjunction with gene ..read more

He’s not happy. For Release January 9, 2019 HEAVEN—January 9 At 12:01am today Eastern Standard Time God shut down heaven for business. “It’s true, I’m not happy,” he said in a tweet dated 12:02am, “In seven days I created the earth and all its inhabitants, which was no small feat. But humans are destroying it.” Reports of rioting and looting at St. Peter’s Gate indicate frustration over a backup that — according to divine authorities — could last “a couple hundred years.”  As for now, those awaiting ..read more

by Darryl Benjamin When I was a kid, my older brother lived on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village, and he was the first to introduce me to a bevy of unusual restaurants. There was the macrobiotic restaurant with long, rough-hewn picnic tables (inside and downstairs) populated by hippies drinking Mu Tea and eating delightful but unrecognizable fare, or the Asia de Cuba restaurant born out of a blended Cuban and Chinese cuisine, plus countless other eateries. Never once did I think of these places as innovative or startups, as they are now called. I just thought they were cool restaura ..read more