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.
Biotechnology timeline: Humans have manipulated genes since the ‘dawn of civilization’
The history of biotechnology shows how humans have been manipulating nature for our benefit for a long time—and how modern ...
Pumpkins against poverty: How this drought-tolerant fruit might prove to be sustainable boon in developing world
Pumpkins are an ideal plant for water insecure regions due to their tolerance of drought. Given their ability to withstand less water and ...
Can Nigeria reach food security without genetically modified crops?
For Nigeria to attain food sufficiency to feed its current population of over 212 million people and reduce its overreliance ...
BBC corrects its misleading educational site hyping the benefits of organic and the alleged environmental problems of GMOs
The BBC has revised misleading and factually inaccurate statements about different farming systems on its exam revision website BBC Bitesize ...
Crop biotechnology: Is misinformation still winning?
The journal GM Crops and Food has begun posting a collection of invited papers on “GM Narratives and Misinformation.” ...
How effective and safe are current-generation pesticides?
it is important to balance risks with the benefits that pesticides provide ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based meats are too expensive for consumers to seriously consider
We need to transform our food systems in the next few decades. In most countries, meat consumption is still growing ...
‘Quantum shift’: UK regulators replacing science-strangling ultra-precautionary crop biotech regulations to accelerate adoption of CRISPR and other precise breeding technologies
A ‘quantum shift’ by the Food Standards Agency in its planned approach to regulating gene edited food and feed products ...
Study: Scientists should use social media to fight advocacy group disinformation about modern agricultural biotechnology
Stakeholders need to be enlightened more about genes and viruses as these are the most misunderstood aspects that might have ...
Viewpoint: How did glyphosate became the target of advocacy groups and tort lawyers — considering no global science organization concludes traces in our food pose cancer risks?
No, Roundup glyphosate sprayed in his garden did not cause Mark McCostlin's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a rare form of cancer), a ...
As climate change devastation escalates across Africa, crop biotechnology innovation offers science-based help
Changing weather patterns including rising temperatures, increasing drought incidences, floods and the proliferation of plant diseases are some of its ...
These beekeepers don’t want you to start your own honeybee hives. Here’s why
The craze for honey bees now presents a genuine ecological challenge. Not just in Slovenia, but around the world ...
6th sense? The mystery of tasting salt is so indecipherable, scientists say we have two separate systems to decode it
We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the ...
Are neonicotinoid seed treatments critical for protecting crops—or unnecessary, with potential to harm bees?
Neonicotinoids, the world’s most popular class of insecticides, have been making headlines for the last decade due to concerns that ...
Tomatoes that are delicious, not too fleshy and yet harvestable? With gene editing, they may be on the way
A supermarket tomato can be a delicate thing, easily squashed. Tomatoes grown for canning are a lot tougher. Even when ...
The good and problematic elements of the ‘Green Revolution’ — and prospects for genetics-driven version 2.0
The Green Revolution led to a significant increase in agricultural productivity. New high-yielding crop varieties, such as dwarf wheat and ...
Only 7 African countries commercially grow genetically engineered crops. Here’s a blueprint to unlock the continent’s enormous farm and food potential
The African continent has been home to genetically modified (GM) crops for more than 26 years, beginning in 1996 when ...
Viewpoint: Is organic food worth higher prices? A Harvard researcher advises on how to sidestep the con, save money and eat healthier
Organic foods, valued at over $75 billion, have long been touted as superior to conventionally grown foods, with some studies ...
Genetically-modified industrial hemp cleared for commercialization in US
A hemp plant genetically engineered to produce lower levels of the cannabinoids THC and cannabichromene (CBC) “may be safely grown ...
China poised for new great leap forward on backs of new generation of biotech crops
A trial planting of genetically modified corn and soybean crops outside lab settings in multiple sites across China is projected ...
Viewpoint: GMO mustard crops newly approved in India enable farmer self-reliance and provide food oil sorely needed for growing population
India faces a major deficit in edible oils, with 60% of its demand being met by imports. Mustard is one ...
Viewpoint: As the BBC spews organic farming propaganda, the world’s poor suffer
How many people around the world are currently living in poverty? The World Bank reports that a little over 9%, ...
Poverty, food and brain health: Lack of nutritious food leaves multi-generational impact on our bodies and minds
You are what you eat, according to the adage. But it’s not just the body that’s impacted. According to research ...
GLP podcast/video: ‘Industrial’ seed oils unhealthy? A mom’s guide to anti-GMO myths; Opposites actually don’t attract
Are so-called "industrial" seed oils slowly killing us? Probably not. One mom and farmer says other parents shouldn't be scared ...
Muslim and Jewish leaders debate whether lab-grown protein is Halal or Kosher
Lab-grown meat has begun getting the green light from regulators and is making its way onto restaurant menus. Still, not ...
‘Museum of Agriculture’? Could that be the fate of European farming if Greenpeace and other environmental activists succeed in blocking deregulation of crop gene editing?
The war between science and anti-crop biotechnology advocacy groups has escalated since the summer release of the European Commission Report ...
Despite shouldering some of the blame for climate change, could agricultural technology actually cut emissions?
As the Earth’s human population grows, greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s food system are on track to expand ...
