Stewart Brand, the environmentalist most famous for editing the Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970s, will be speaking at next week’s Fortune Brainstorm: Green about why biotech crops are green and sustainable. Mr. Brand is currently co-chairman of The Long Now Foundation and recently wrote the book Whole Earth Discipline, where he argues that the green movement’s rejection of agricultural biotechnology is antithetical to its goal of preserving the environment.

Stewart Brand will be speaking on Monday, April 12 from 7:15-9:15 PM PST. You can view his speech via a live webcast by registering online at: http://www.fortuneconferences.com/brainstormgreen/.

The National Academies of Science will be presenting a report next week about the impact of genetically modified crops. The report release will be open to the public and will be streamed via live webcast at www.nas.edu. Please see below for more information. We think the report will share very interesting information and we will report on its findings after the release!’

The National Research Council is pleased to invite you to attend the public release of a new report on genetically engineered crops. The Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States is the first comprehensive assessment of the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the GE-crop revolution on U.S. farms. It addresses how GE crops have affected U.S. farmers, both adopters and nonadopters of the technology, their incomes, agronomic practices, production decisions, environmental resources, and personal well-being. The report offers several new findings and recommendations that will be of interest to farmers, industry representatives, science organizations, policymakers, government representatives, and the public.

 The public release and briefing of this report will be held on Tuesday, April 13, at 11:00 am in the Lecture Room of the National Academies of Sciences building, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Members of the public are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to Kamo Mutu at kmutu@nas.edu. The briefing will also be streamed live via webcast. Please visit www.nas.edu to view the briefing.

CBI is organizing a panel this year at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Conference on May 5 titled “How Public Perception Affects Adoption of Technologies that Help Feed the World.” We are excited about our distinguished group of panelists and are looking forward to a robust discussion about the political, communication and regulatory hurdles that slow acceptance of agricultural technologies.

The panel will address the connection between public perception of technologies, such as agricultural biotechnology, and their adoption. The speakers will address the political hurdles, which often result from cultures of misinformation and unfounded fears, that inhibit acceptance of agricultural technologies and that prevent certain populations from access to their many benefits.

We would love to hear ideas from our readers and let you help shape our panel discussion. Please feel free to submit questions for our panelists through Twitter, Facebook or the comments section of the blog. Our moderator, Sally Squires, will choose the best and use them throughout our panel.

Below are our excellent panelists, an accomplished group of authors, journalists, academics and advocates. We look forward to hearing their unique and informed perspectives about the role perception plays in the adoption of crop technology.

Sally Squires - Moderator
Senior Vice President, Weber Shandwick; former medical and health Staff Writer and Nationally Syndicated Columnist for The Washington Post

Michael Specter
Staff writer for The New Yorker, author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives

Maywa Montenegro
Senior Associate Editor, Seed Magazine

Bruce Chassy, Ph. D.
Professor of food microbiology and a professor of nutritional sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Kenneth Kamiya
President, Hawaii Papaya Industry Association

Margaret Zeigler, Ph. D.
Deputy Director, Congressional Hunger Center