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I will be giving two talks in Europe next week. In both cases, I will be presenting my work on female genital cutting, which has now been expanded to cover both Senegal and the Gambia.

The first talk will be on Wednesday, November 13, and is organized by the London International Development Centre. You can find the details here. The second talk will be on Thursday, November 14 at Goethe Universität in Frankfurt. You can find the details here. If you do make it to either one of those talks, please come say hi and introduce yourself.

1. The one scene that would have completely redeemed the Star Wars prequels.
2. Special issue of Development and Change on China in Africa.
3. NY Times online feature about the history of food assistance programs in the US.
4. For LaTex users: the Beamer theme matrix.
5. The Machete Order: A New Way to Watch Star Wars. (ht: Tim Beatty)

As a consequence of the Washington state legislature voting on resolution 522 this week, there has been much talk in the media about GMO labeling lately. For most advocates of GMO labeling, the whole idea behind the resolution (and similar resolutions elsewhere) is about people’s right to know what’s in their food.

But is it? Or is “the people’s right to know what’s in their food” argument a red herring, given that those who advocate GMO labeling are also those who stand most to gain (i.e., organic producers) from a combination of rousing up a food scare surrounding GMOs and compulsory GMO labels?

An article in Forbes last week superbly summarized the political economy of GMO labeling: