{"id":318181,"date":"2016-01-20T06:50:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T11:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&p=318181"},"modified":"2016-01-20T06:50:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T11:50:11","slug":"pamela-ronald","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/pamela-ronald\/","title":{"rendered":"Pamela Ronald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green cred:<\/strong> Around the world, poor farmers lose their rice crops to flooding each year. Flooding wipes out 4 million tons of rice annually in India and Bangladesh alone — that\u2019s enough to feed 30 million people. This is the sort of food waste that\u2019s most important to eliminate if we want to feed ourselves without expanding our agricultural footprint<\/a>. That\u2019s where Pamela Ronald comes in.<\/p>\n

Ronald\u2019s lab was instrumental in developing a form of rice that tolerates prolonged floods. The work was done using genetic engineering, but the rice released to farmers isn\u2019t technically a GMO: Rather than splicing in the genes directly, scientists crossed and recrossed strains of rice until they ended up with a variety that incorporated the genetic traits that Ronald\u2019s lab had found.<\/span> Now over 4 million farmers have gotten the submersion-resistant rice.<\/p>\n

What to expect in 2016:<\/strong> Every year Ronald\u2019s voice grows more prominent as a kinder, gentler, non-corporate advocate for using genetic engineering to solve the world\u2019s food problems. She recently co-founded the GMO-education nonprofit\u00a0Biology Fortified<\/a>, became the faculty director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy<\/a>, at UC Davis, and delivered an influential TED talk<\/a> on the importance of genetic improvement. She doesn\u2019t intend to slow down.<\/p>\n

Bring on the microbes:<\/strong> In addition to studying how rice deals with flooding and drought, Ronald also tries to understand how plants and microbes communicate. \u201cI\u2019ve been interested in understanding the molecular dialogue between two organisms since college,\u201d she says. \u201cThe plant has to recognize the microbe to launch a pest response. And this is important for agriculture: If the plant has genes for resistance you don’t need to spray pesticides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wedded to organic:<\/strong> Genetic engineering and organic farming can<\/em> fall in love. Ronald is married to organic farmer Raoul Adamchak. They\u2019ll be working on the second edition of their book Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food<\/a><\/em> in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the leaders shaping green in 2016. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54839989,"featured_media":490322,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[1],"class_list":["post-318181","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-2"],"yoast_head":"\nPamela Ronald - Grist 50<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pamela Ronald\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the leaders shaping green in 2016.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/pamela-ronald\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grist 50\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/ronald.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" 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