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.
Mustard greens genetically tweaked to be less bitter will be the first CRISPR edited food available in the US when they reach supermarkets this summer
A gene-editing startup wants to help you eat healthier salads. This month, North Carolina–based Pairwise is rolling out a new ...
Does GMO corn increase crop yields? More than 20 years of data confirm it does — and provides substantial health and safety benefits
While many studies show that genetically modified crops contribute to yield gains, GMO critics say that they don’t. Such claims, ...
Removing bitterness: Why do today’s Brussels sprouts taste so much better than when we were children?
It’s not just in your imagination that the Brussels sprouts you ate in your adolescence were, uh, potent, to say ...
Viewpoint: Mexico remains divided on GMO corn ban. Here’s what one farmer wants to happen
In Mexico, we buy significant amounts of corn from growers in the United States because my country doesn’t have the ...
30 years of waiting for an insect-resistant tomato but questions about taste may limit its market
A tenacious plant breeder has developed more than a dozen new lines of naturally pest-resistant tomatoes — foreshadowing a future in ...
Viewpoint fact check: Honeybees aren’t disappearing and GMOs do not cause colony collapse disorder
In 2020 the EU had approximately 19 million honeybee hives, managed by 615,000 beekeepers. These hives altogether produced 275,000 tonnes ...
Edible insects: Cultures around the globe eat environmentally friendly bug protein. Why shouldn’t the United States?
Although edible insects are far from common in American and European cuisines, over 3,000 ethnic groups in 130 countries eat them regularly ...
Chronic food insecurity threatens many low-income countries. What can be done?
After more than fifteen years of heartening declines, global food insecurity and malnutrition are again on the rise. According to ...
Anti-biotech activists claim biotech crops promote “unsustainable” monoculture? Let’s separate facts from ideology
Biotech critics frequently claim that conventional agriculture and GMOs promote monoculture farming, which is harmful to biodiversity. A closer look ...
Early plant domestication: How humans co-evolved with ancient crops
The story of how ancient wolves came to claim a place near the campfire as humanity's best friend is a ...
Mexico’s proposed GMO corn ban could damage the US economy
Mexico issued a proposed ban on GMO corn in 2022, putting the U.S. in a position to lose out on ...
Plant microbiomes: Humans are not the only organisms that need healthy biomes. Here is how to grow safer and more nutritious food and feed
A “physical examination” is the standard way to track human health. It involves a variety of measurements such as blood ...
Could ice cream be good for your health?
Back in 2018, a Harvard doctoral student named Andres Ardisson Korat was presenting his research on the relationship between dairy ...
Archaeobiology provides fresh insights about the origins of food and farming
The precise drivers of agriculture remain a matter of fierce debate. Were people pushed into relying on plants for food ...
Re-examining 10 science-challenged studies suggesting GMOs are harmful
The blog "10 Scientific Studies Proving GMOs Can Be Harmful To Human Health" is now a fixture on cyberspace. A ...
Here’s how the GMO purple tomato soon to be in US grocery stores came to fruition
Norfolk Healthy Produce’s purple tomato first appeared in The New York Times Magazine eight months ago. Genetically engineered to naturally produce ...
Agriculture and climate change: Taking the best of all farming systems could tip the carbon scale in the right direction
Agriculture contributes a significant portion of the world's climate-changing greenhouse gases. In turn, changes in climate will reduce agricultural yields ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of ‘pesticide soaked’ conventional fruits and vegetables contains a confession and caveat: conventional produce is healthy
The Environmental Working Group recently released it’s 2023 Dirty Dozen list. This annual propaganda allegedly ranks the fresh produce with ...
Why the European Union needs to grow genetically-engineered crops
The United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Japan, and India are among the growing number of countries that have deregulated ...
Viewpoint: Biotechnology rejectionists claim the Green Revolution caused more harm than good. Here are the facts.
After the Second World War, regional famines began to occur. Believing that increasing agricultural performance can be the solution to ...
Tweaking one gene could help crops survive and thrive in salty water
Chinese scientists have discovered a crop gene that, once deactivated, can allow plants to thrive in saline and alkaline soils, ...
Top 10 anti-biotech propagandizers: Who are the science deniers and snake oil peddlers undermining science in agriculture and medicine?
Anti-science beliefs are proliferating, particularly on the biotechnology and genetics front, covering a range of issues from vaccine denialism to ...
Viewpoint: American farmers concerned about using more land and chemicals to satisfy Mexico’s unscientific anti-GMO import ban
As snow swirled over the soil hundreds of acres in each direction, Owen Niese already was worried about a crop ...
Video: NASA data rebuke ‘green wisdom’ on cattle and carbon pollution. With 50+ million heads of cattle, Argentina has net positive carbon balance
Argentina is one of the few countries in the world with a positive carbon balance, according to a study published ...
GLP podcast and video: Low-carb diets cause heart disease? Economic de-growth or ‘green’ growth?
Many people have turned to low-carb diets as a way to shed unwanted body fat, but a new study suggests ...
Letter to the US Department of Agriculture: Look to biotechnology for innovation
To provide input to the federal government as USDA submits its report in March on how to use biotechnology and ...
How the war in Ukraine has derailed the European Union Farm to Fork initiative — and sparked debate about what constitutes sustainable agriculture
In March 2020, the EU, unveiled its Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, an ambitious policy designed to reduce agriculture’s carbon ...
