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: ‘Big Ag’ caused the coronavirus pandemic? Predatory science journal amplifies baseless COVID-19 conspiracy
With the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, agricultural supply chains around the world have been taxed to ensure consistent and ...
Gene editing will revolutionize crop breeding in Africa, new paper predicts
Genome editing technology has the potential to revolutionize crop development on the African continent, especially in sub-Sahara Africa, according to ...
Gene editing could cut food additive use and put more nutritious options in supermarkets
[In 2019], Minneapolis-based Calyxt introduced a soybean oil without trans fats for commercial sale. It was the first gene-edited food ...
Podcast: How domestication turned cattle into a key source of increasingly sustainable food
Cattle provide meat, milk and hide products to people all over the world, and are used as work animals for ...
Chipotle fined record-setting $25 million for allegedly sickening 1,100 customers with norovirus
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. will pay a $25 million criminal fine to resolve allegations by federal prosecutors that its food ...
Why we need globalization: Locally grown food could only feed 27% of the world’s population
It is true that in North America and much of Europe you can grow plenty of wheat locally, but in ...
Gene-drive technology may combat notorious Fusarium fungus that decimates global wheat yields
The Fusarium fungus is the bane of every wheat farmer’s existence. Causing wheat scab—also known as head blight—it decimates harvests ...
Can vast ocean seaweed farms provide sustainable biofuel?
One day in the future, the Pacific Ocean could be home to kilometers of seaweed farms tended by submarine drones ...
GMO Impossible beef hits 1,000 new grocery stores as plant-based meat demand surges
Starting [April 17], 777 supermarkets in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nevada [began] stocking the Impossible Foods plant-based meat substitute ...
Viewpoint: Government-funded anti-GMO groups promote hunger in world’s poorest nations
Too many US, EU and UN government agencies have been captured by neo-colonialist elements in their leadership and ranks, and ...
Viewpoint: How plant-based meat and other biotech innovations fuel ecological restoration
Agriculture, livestock and fishing are the sectors with the greatest ecological impacts on the planet. Soon, in a generation, they ...
Our food has never been safer, so why are we so scared of it?
Why you shouldn't trust your brain ...
Puff piece: Lab-made ‘Incredible Cotton’ may grow 10 times faster and cut environmental impact of the traditional crop
You might call this a puff piece, because it’s about cotton that’s just as fluffy but more sustainable than the ...
Will genetically improved crops be enough to sustainably feed a booming global population?
A growing, increasingly affluent and urban human population is driving demand for more food grown in more-sustainable ways. ... Sustainable ...
Will CRISPR spawn a new wave of crop biotech innovation despite regulatory hurdles?
The fact that gene-edited crops can be indistinguishable at the molecular level from those that occur in nature or are ...
Fast carbs: Do the products of modern agriculture short circuit your biology to make you fat and diabetic?
In recent weeks, foods of all kinds have flown off the shelves at grocery stores as Americans stocked up to ...
Gene editing and agroecology compatible? Yes, and they may lead to more eco-friendly farming
New gene techniques and agro-ecology can reinforce each other in making agriculture more sustainable, say researchers at Wageningen University & ...
Can we meet global food demand using conventional, intensive agriculture without sacrificing the environment?
The expansion of farmlands to meet the growing food demand of the world’s ever expanding population places a heavy burden ...
Gene editing could yield tastier blackberries and raspberries with longer shelf life
Like your berries? [Biotech startup] Pairwise .... is working to put more options on supermarket shelves. It has partnered with ...
Next-generation gene-editing technology: Path to a second Green Revolution?
Might gene-editing facilitate the task of generating and identifying yield-enhancing genetic variation? ...
Biotech-powered, plant-based seafood poised to cut overfishing, pollution and ‘food fraud’
Plant-based seafood specialist Kuleana is targeting seafood and sushi lovers with what it describes as the ‘next generation of raw ...
Brexit unlikely to change UK’s restrictive GMO crop rules in the next 3 years, USDA reports
In his inaugural speech as Prime Minister (PM) in July 2019, Boris Johnson said “let’s liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience ...
Cellular agriculture could replace some of the 270 million dairy cows needed to produce milk
Worldwide demand for milk is continually increasing in response to a range of factors, including global population growth and changing ...
5 nations grow 174.5 million hectares of GMO crops annually—more than 90% of global total
High adoption of biotech crops continued in 2018 with 26 countries planting 191.7 million hectares worldwide. This area is an ...
Low-hanging fruit: How the first generation of GMO crops yielded massive economic and environmental benefits
There are still no widely available GM varieties of either wheat or rice, the second and third most widely grown ...
Viewpoint: How consumer fear and misguided regulation limit the progress of crop biotechnology
There is a profound disconnect between the modern science of crop improvement and the farmer ...
Could GMO microbes, plants yield larger quantities of heart drug digoxin?
Foxglove plants, found in many gardens, are known for the showers of bell-shaped flowers they produce. But plants belonging to ...
Gene from grass-dwelling fungus may help safeguard global wheat production against deadly disease
Wheat scab hits farmers with a double punch. The fungal disease, also known as Fusarium head blight, shrivels grain and ...
