Agricultural Regs & Ethics
Science fiction? Hollywood weighs in on GMOs
Actress and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow recently appeared on Capitol Hill to promote GMO labeling. We applaud her willingness to get involved in the political ...
GMOs protect farm laborers, reduce carbon emissions and are safe to eat.
Unsure about biotechnology? There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Although biotech can improve people’s lives, it can be hard to get ...
Pollinator myth: Are bees responsible for one third of global food, heightening crisis? More like 7%
Aren’t bees responsible for a third of the world’s food, and 90 percent of global nutrition — claims invoked by ...
European scientists criticize Scotland’s GMO ban
The Scottish government is to ban the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops. Here are a selection of reactions to ...
Neil Young embraces GMOs to prolong his life, but tries to block benefits for others
Neil Young: Grammy-award winning musician and GMO-hater? That’s the clear message from Young’s latest album, released earlier this summer. “The Monsanto Years,” ...
Opponents of Bt brinjal in Bangladesh employ false media reports and scare tactics
Media reports are claiming that Bt brinjal (eggplant) has failed in the field and that farmers in Bangladesh are regretting growing it ...
Industry-University GMO relationship: Complicated reality exploited by activists
Concern over ties between academia and industry is legitimate, but often overblown, and can be used to justify witch hunts. There is the ...
Kevin Folta discusses “ties” to GMO industry, challenges of biotech literacy communication
Independent agricultural scientist Kevin Folta responded to questions raised about his relationship to the biotechnology industry, as the first wave ...
Most people want government experts, not public opinion, to decide GMO labeling
I wanted to draw your attention to an aspect of the GMO labeling debate that you don't hear a lot about ...
Beemageddon? Honeybee numbers at 20 year high
You've heard the news about honeybees. "Beepocalypse," they've called it. Beemageddon. America's honeybees are dying, putting honey production and $15 billion worth ...
Biotech professor’s emails show no misconduct in battling anti-GMO propaganda, but Monsanto tie noted
Michelle McGuire, a nutrition scientist at Washington State University in Pullman, was stunned when anti-GMO activists asked to read her ...
GMO chicken could solve avian flu crisis, saving millions of birds, if only if….
The solution to avian flu, the virus responsible for the devastating eradication of chicken and turkey flocks across much of ...
East meets west: How biotechnology accelerates shrinking of global economic divide
If current economic growth trends persist, the “great divergence” between Western Europe and East and South Asia in per capita ...
3 ways GMO rice could improve world but tech hurdles and anti-GMO protests block way
New GMO varieties of rice could improve nutrition, cut potentially dangerous arsenic levels and help combat climate change, but activist ...
Opinions on GMO labeling cross partisan divide—for now
Unlike issues such as gun control or universal healthcare that fall neatly into "Red" and "Blue" territories, divisions over GMO ...
Nationwide mandatory GMO labeling bill won’t reduce food costs or address global farming challenges
An attempt to pass a new law preempting efforts in several states to mandate GMO labeling is not only doomed ...
Are plants sentient beings with rights? What would this mean for conservation and agriculture?
Plants are intelligent. Plants deserve rights. To most of us these statements may sound, at best, insupportable or, at worst, ...
Anti-GMO critics claim Big Ag out lobbies “good food” organic supporters
The leaders of the so-called good food sector — including Chipotle, Whole Foods and Applegate — are winning big in ...
Do activists claiming pesticide Beemageddon really care about bee survival or is it tactical ploy?
We know that activist groups really care about bees. In 2013, about 200 activists held a funeral for 50,000 bumblebees that ...
Asia poised to overtake anti-GMO Europe in farming innovation
If current economic growth trends persist, the “Great Divergence” between Western Europe and East and South Asia in per capita ...
Some geneticists worry ‘gene drive’ tech could create bio-weapon or environmental disaster
A powerful new technique for generating “supercharged” genetically modified organisms that can spread rapidly in the wild has caused alarm ...
Obama declines to answer whether US supports GMOs in Ethiopia
During his official visit to Ethiopia, President Barack Obama toured Faffa Foods highlighting why one of his signature policy initiatives ...
Has farm-to-table movement become a marketing sham?
Today, chefs can’t shut up about where every morsel that went into every dish got its start in life. No ...
Will Hollywood anti-GMO/pro-labeling activists Lena Dunham and Gwyneth Paltrow consider science?
Human geneticist who now opposes mandatory GMO labeling appeals to actresses to engage independent university scientists and not just ideologues ...
Glyphosate carcinogenic? WHO clarifies conflicting declarations
A statement by the World Health Organization's cancer research branch, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), classifying the ...
Why former organic farmer, food inspector turned against Big Organic to embrace GMOs
Nothing cuts deeper than feeling betrayed. That's the story of a former organic farmer who now believes the industry who ...
Organic agriculture ‘unscientific, heavily subsidized marketing gimmick’
Consumers of organic foods are getting both more and less than they bargained for. On both counts, it’s not good ...
