Crops & Food
We eat to live. Humans use approximately 11% of Earth’s land for the cultivation of crops for food, but also for clothing, medicine and biofuels. Globally, major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize (corn), wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Viewpoint: The Impossible Burger has sparked an ideological rift between anti-GMO critics
Redrawn battle lines expose a growing ideological rift in a once-cohesive anti-GMO movement and appear to signal a shift in ...
How the halo effect around plant-based meat leads us to exaggerate its nutritional benefits
Healthy food, unhealthy ingredients? ...
Viewpoint: Why GMOs? Biotechnology yields a drought-tolerant rice that conventional breeding couldn’t produce
“Photosynthesis: a feat of chemical engineering underpinning creation’s entire cathedral.” ― Richard Powers, The Overstory ...
Kenya poised to greenlight GMO disease-resistant cassava cultivation to protect key food source
Kenya is planning to green-light the cultivation and sale of genetically modified cassava in a move to improve food security ...
Viewpoint: Expanding organic agriculture could make another pandemic more likely
Modern technology and agricultural intensification are the proven path to a safer future ...
Viewpoint: Norman Borlaug knew technology could fight hunger. In the biotech age, we ignore his wisdom at our peril
Borlaug’s brilliant insights were double-cropping and dwarfing, his incredible focus and hard work are a matter of record, and then ...
Why local food production doesn’t prevent shortages in a pandemic
Throughout this pandemic, there have been many prognostications about the future of eating and proposals to make sure we are ...
Africa saves food for 5 million people from destruction as battle against locust swarms rages
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges, significant gains have been made against Desert Locust encroachment in East Africa and ...
How insect resistant Bt eggplant has made Bangladesh a global ‘role model’: A photo essay
Brinjal — also known as eggplant, aubergine and talong — is a very popular and important vegetable in South Asia ...
Non-GMO gene editing: New technique edits plant DNA without use of ‘foreign’ bacterial genes
An NC State researcher has developed a new way to get CRISPR/Cas9 into plant cells without inserting foreign DNA. This ...
Coffee of the future? Lab-made ‘molecular’ version might feed the world’s caffeine habit while sparing the environment
The coronavirus pandemic has led to many shifts in how we eat, but our collective coffee habit remains strong. As ...
Microscopic algae diet could help honeybees fight off deadly pathogens and other threats
A microscopic algae ("microalgae") could provide a complete and sustainably sourced supplemental diet to boost the robustness of managed honey ...
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker propose phased in ‘factory farming’ ban to clamp down on ‘Big Ag’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced [May 7] that she would be co-sponsoring Sen. Cory Booker's bill to phase out large-scale factory ...
Rescuing Africa’s staple orphan crops—sorghum, millet, cowpea, cassava and sweat potato—with biotechnology could help feed millions of people
The year is 2100 and Africa is home to the world’s largest population of young people, with its current leader ...
Video: Iceland breeds heat-tolerant trees to restore native forests amid climate change
The landscape of Iceland has changed a lot in a thousand years. When the Vikings first arrived in the ninth ...
Viewpoint: Coronavirus pandemic accelerates progress toward tech-driven, sustainable food system
COVID-19 presents our food system with unprecedented challenges that we must learn from. We must also remember that COVID-19 is ...
USDA, FDA should streamline ‘fragmented’ lab-grown meat regulation, Government Accountability Office finds
General information about the process of making cell-cultured meat—food products grown from the cells of livestock, poultry, and seafood—is available ...
Can the gene editing technology known as CRISPR help reduce biodiversity loss worldwide?
CRISPR “could be such an amazing tool if we are respectful [and] responsible and use it properly.” ...
Agriculture is ‘ecocide’? Third-generation farmer takes on environmental objections to modern food production
When times are tough and people are struggling, we tend to look for someone to blame. The op-ed “Link between ...
GMO tomato as edible COVID vaccine? Mexican scientists work to make it a reality
While large companies and public sector consortiums in the United States, Canada, China and Europe are running at full speed ...
Book review: Sheldon Krimsky’s ‘GMOs Decoded’ cherry-picks data to spur fear of biotech crops
Judith Heimann reviews “GMOs Decoded: A Skeptic’s View of Genetically Modified Foods,” by Sheldon Krimsky ...
Second massive locust swarm hits East Africa, exacerbating already severe food shortage threat
They’re back: Trillions of locusts descend on East Africa in second wave. Think of locusts as giant, hormonally charged, very ...
Following restaurant debut, gene-edited, heart-healthy soybean oil now available directly to consumers
Plant-based technology company Calyxt has launched a direct-to-consumer site for its high oleic soybean cooking oil, Calyno, which is claimed ...
Despite GMO Bt insect-resistant cotton approval, Ethiopia still skittish about widespread biotech crop cultivation
The Ethiopian government has denied approving the commercial cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) other than two Bt cotton varieties ...
Podcast: GMOs = witchcraft? ‘Big Ag’ didn’t cause coronavirus; Remdesivir for COVID-19
We finally have a drug to treat COVID-19 in remdesivir, but how well does it work? Anti-GMO activists have blamed ...
GMO corn cultivation in Europe has no adverse environmental effects, decade-long study confirms
In European regulations for the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the objective of General Surveillance ...
Impossible Foods rolls out plant-based GMO burger to 1,700 new stores as COVID-19 strains meat supplies
As more meat plants temporarily close or operate at reduced capacity as coronavirus spreads, plant-based brands “have a window of ...
US government launches GMO website, may allow GM crops in some wildlife refuges
While much of the United States government’s recent activity has focused on COVID-19, some agencies are continuing their work in ...
