Crops & Food

‘What are we afraid of?’ Swiss farm officials frustrated by government’s proposed GMO ban extension
Making agricultural production more sustainable is a matter of survival for the global population, with an estimated nine billion mouths ...

Our Stone Age ancestors thrived on ‘chunks of meat,’ but plants were just as key to their survival
Early humans wouldn't be able to survive without glucose from plants ...

Gene editing could fight deadly diseases in fish, boosting sustainable aquaculture
Developing effective treatments – like vaccines – can be challenging, take many years and can be difficult to manufacture and ...

‘Unlikely alliance’: Farm Bureau joins green advocacy groups to tackle climate change
What if the best way to get Western farmers to reduce their carbon emissions and adopt greener practices was to ...

Africa’s biotech acceptance grows as 3 more countries begin cultivating GM crops
Africa leads the progress among the regions of the world in adopting biotech crops by doubling the number of adopting ...

‘Highly unusual’ apple variety discovered in the UK
Archie Thomas, from the Nadder Valley in Wiltshire, came across across a windfall apple on a wooded trackway near his ...

5 foods that have shaped landscape, culture and politics throughout history
As the World Economic Forum features its Bold Actions for Food as a Force for Good virtual event from 23-24 November 2020, ...

Viewpoint: Despite its ‘social justice pretense’ agroecology promotes poverty in developing countries
The world is made up of sunshine and butterflies, roses and rainbows. If we can stop Father Profit from raping ...

Viewpoint: ‘More marketing than science’—Why the case against GM crops is built on misinformation
Consumer Reports, a nonprofit better known for rating cars and dishwashers, wrote about GMOs in its 2014 article “Where GMOs ...

GM Golden Rice commercialization in Philippines ‘far from reality,’ may be delayed until 2023
At a virtual news briefing on [Nov. 23], PhilRice Healthier Rice Project Leader Dr. Renante L. Ordonio said everyone has ...

Beyond Meat launches plant-based pork in bid to outcompete Impossible Foods in China
The California-based company unveiled its latest product on [Nov 18]: meatless minced "pork." The new product is intended to mimic ...

Monsanto wrongly sued farmers for patent infringement? Federal courts put down David v Goliath myth for good
Does greedy Monsanto sue small-time farmers for patent infringement because their fields are accidentally contaminated with the company's GM seeds? ...

Beyond Meat announces 2021 launch of leaner plant-based burgers to satisfy ‘health-conscious consumers’
As demand for plant-based products surge, Beyond Meat is making sure it keeps its health-conscious consumers coming back. The company ...

Golden Rice could illegally make its way to India as country struggles to stay ‘GMO free’
India has traditionally been a ‘no-GMO’ country, a status recently reinforced when the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ...

Philippines’ major eggplant-producing provinces back insect-resistant Bt GM brinjal approval
Eggplants are susceptible to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), a pest that causes around 70-80% yield loss annually ...

Meat from plants: Could animal proteins grown in GM crops be used to make burgers?
Using a genetic engineering technique known as molecular farming, [Moolec Science] believes it can leverage the scale of production of ...

Viewpoint: Anti-GMO groups exploit COVID to block access to biotech crops
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on our lives in so many ways, including diminished social contact, disrupted ...

Some African scientists fear the continent will be left behind as gene editing transforms food production
Scientists in Africa are calling on their governments to ensure the continent isn’t left behind as gene editing revolutionizes food ...

AquaBounty ‘on track’ to sell GM salmon by year’s end, despite court ruling calling for more environmental impact data
The FDA should have given more consideration to the risks genetically modified AquAdvantage salmon posed to wild populations before approving ...

Thailand advances legislation to repeal GM crop cultivation ban for second time in 5 years
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment anticipates that the Biodiversity Law, which includes biosafety regulations covering research, field trial, ...

High-yielding plants that survive temperature swings may be our next weapon against climate change
Sally Mackenzie spent her childhood summers walking through the vast fields of bright, red, ripe tomato crops: They grow best ...

Viewpoint: Europe’s ‘nonsensical regulatory system’ blocks GMO seeds but circumvents biotech ban to exempt gene-edited COVID vaccines
As consumers, we all want to be reassured that the products we purchase are safe for us to use and ...

It’s ‘ethically unacceptable’ to ban GMOs if it increases malnutrition, Colombian biotech scientist warns
[I]n Colombia several congressmen presented a draft legislative act to modify article 81 of the constitution to "prohibit entry into ...

How do you make a GMO? FDA’s step-by-step guide to genetically engineering a crop
Identify: To produce a GMO plant, scientists first identify what trait they want that plant to have, such as resistance ...

GM corn coming to Kenya? Local researchers petition government to approve Bt insect-resistant maize
According to Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (KARLO) Director General Dr Eliud Krieger, the research agency has sought approval ...

How needless precaution kept a GMO ‘superfood’ off the market: Q&A with Golden Rice author Ed Regis
Seeing what has happened to Golden Rice over the course of 20 years, nothing would surprise me going forward ...

COVID-19 pandemic may boost public acceptance of Ghana’s GM cowpea
The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing public interest in local food production, which may boost consumer acceptance of the insect-resistant genetically ...

Gene-edited chrysanthemums illustrate how to prevent gene flow from GM plants to wild relatives
Researchers from Fukui Prefectural University and National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan reported simultaneous TALEN-mediated knockout of chrysanthemum ...