Agriculture & 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.
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7 ways biotechnology can mitigate climate change challenges
As the world grapples with escalating climate change, the impacts on agriculture have become acute and inescapable. In 2025, rising temperatures, erratic ...
‘Praying to God for help’: With agricultural policy in disarray, Trump-voting farmers stumble through a catastrophic year
When speaking about his tariffs in March, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "To the Great Farmers of the United States: ...
Even biodegradable plastic is stressing plants
Micro- and nanoplastics cause stress to crops such as lettuce and carrots, PhD candidate Laura Julia Zantis found. This can ...
Misinformation alert: No, glyphosate use in Canadian forests is not spurring more wildfires
Quebec province does not allow the industrial weed killer glyphosate to be sprayed on its forests, but there is no ...
How the agriculture and food industries challenged MAHA heavyweights and reshaped RFK, Jr.’s ‘reform’ agenda
In meeting after meeting at the White House this summer, administration officials held talks with scores of leaders from the ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s agricultural maelstrom: While U.S. agricultural output lags, opportunities for reform are being wasted
American agricultural leadership is being put to the test. Farmers are grappling with high input costs, non-tariff trade barriers, and ...
Lawsuits and misinformation have led to replacing safe glyphosate with far more problematic pre-1974 weed killing formulations
The herbicides in the quiver when Roundup came to market in 1974 were things like Diquat, Paraquat, 2,4-D, and Dicamba ...
Lab grown meat and other cellular agricultural products face environmental challenges
“Cellular agriculture has the potential to be more sustainable in areas such as water recycling and renewable energy use, if ...
GLP podcast: ‘Toxic’ baby food? Dismantling another tort-lawyer health scam
A few months ago, a law firm emailed one of us (Cameron) asking for help promoting their litigation against baby ...
Debate over crop chemicals driving a wedge between original MAHA and MAGA converts
Banning or heavily restricting certain pesticides has been a core tenet of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement, and supporters ...
Rewilding of former farmlands is increasing. What are the sustainability benefits?
Reaching "peak agricultural land" does not mean the problem of deforestation is solved. Growing demand for products like beef, soy, ...
Mediterranean diet may offset much of the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s
Many observational studies have linked a Mediterranean diet to better cognitive health. ... Now, new research suggests that people at ...
The future of farming: Resilience vs Efficiency
Farmers should redesign agricultural systems by prioritising resilience over efficiency and supporting farmers through gradual, practical transitions rather than forcing ...
From soil to DNA: How micronutrients drove genetic adaptations across human populations worldwide
Micronutrients, minerals that are part of the human diet in small amounts, may have influenced human evolution more than previously ...
Viewpoint: ‘A conveyor belt of agenda-driven science’: NPR’s anti-aquaculture hit piece is bought and paid for by activists
National Public Radio (NPR), once a beacon of earnest, if occasionally sanctimonious, reporting, has sunk to a new low, as ...
Weed-killing technology: What to do when herbicide-resistant weeds threaten to swarm crops
The weed control equipment trundling through the field in southern Ontario checked a lot of sci-fi boxes. They were robots, ...
Trump’s EPA will stop collecting emissions data from most polluting companies
The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to eliminate long-standing requirements for polluters to collect and report their emissions of the heat-trapping ...
Viewpoint: How association studies and ‘links’ distort our understanding of the relative risks of different foods
There is a growing debate about ultra-processed foods (UPFs) —products designed for shelf life and taste, typically high in added ...
Cilantro tastes like soap to you? It’s in your genes
Family medicine specialist Neha Vyas, MD, says cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) is one of the most polarizing herbs used in modern cooking. Why? Because ...
Viewpoint: What’s behind the recent surge in anti-glyphosate propaganda?
Here’s what I’m observing: 1. Monsanto is gone. Bought by Bayer. A German conglomerate. 2. Syngenta is gone. Bought by ...
Here are the questions farmers need answer to when deciding what system technology is best for them and the consumers
For nearly 30 years, the loudest argument about GMOs has circled a single point: Are they safe to eat? That’s ...
The less you know, the more you cockily believe you’re right: The Dunning-Kruger Effect sustains agricultural misinformation
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals with limited knowledge or skills in a specific area tend to ...
Viewpoint: Regardless of benefits, the current renaissance of biotech breakthroughs still requires guardrails to mitigate risks
Biotechnology - synthetic biology, the engineering of living systems - is no longer something locked away in high-tech labs. It’s ...
Can native and conventional crops coexist with GM and gene-edited varieties? The case of Honduras
Over the last several years, it’s been more than evident there is an urgent need to increase food production at ...
RFK, Jr’s child health plan promises big with 128 ideas, with little-to-no actionable solutions or details
The Make America Healthy Again Commission, led by Kennedy, identified four potential drivers behind rising rates of chronic disease among ...
Bio-based UV filter extracted from onions could replace petroleum in solar cells, improving solar tech sustainability
Solar power is one of the best tools in humanity’s decarbonization toolbox, but even these green energy technologies aren’t 100 percent sustainable. For ...
From tubers to tree seeds: Solynta’s tech to overcome centuries of potato breeding challenges
Breeding potatoes is notoriously difficult. First, commercial potato cultivars don’t self-pollinate, which has historically prevented breeders from creating stable, genetically ...
