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.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Why one anti-GMO farmer switched to genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant seeds
Greg Guenther is now an enthusiastic user of genetically modified seed, despite steering clear of it in the mid-1990s, having ...
‘Chemicals’ not biggest threat to food safety—and 9 other myths about modern farming busted
Next time you’re at the grocery store, consider these 10 modern myths about the most ancient occupation. 4. A pesticide ...
Indian scientist: Promoting ‘rich man’s’ organic food’ and delaying insect-resistant GMO eggplant hurts poor
Chairman of Review Committee for Genetic Manipulations (RCGM) Dr B Sesikeran ... said by stalling Bt brinjal [eggplant], India has only done more ...
‘True blue’ chrysanthemum flowers created using genetic engineering
Roses are red, but science could someday turn them blue. That’s one of the possible future applications of a technique ...
Chipotle got rid of food with ‘scary-sounding chemicals’—So why are customers getting sick?
[Editor's note: Joseph Perrone is the Chief Science Officer at the Center for Accountability in Science.] [Spring 2017], Chipotle reinforced its ...
Over-fishing to supply fish oil with omega-3? GMO camelina may soon offer sustainable alternatives
Metabolic engineers have moved a step closer to sourcing fish oils from fields rather than from the oceans with a ...
Kenya could become first country to approve GMO bridal bouquet ‘baby’s breath’ flowers
Baby’s breath, a staple of bridal bouquets, could become Kenya’s first commercially grown genetically modified (GM) flower. By introducing genes ...
India’s cotton farmers turn to black market herbicide-tolerant GM varieties to improve yields
The cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops with new transgenic traits such as herbicide tolerance (HT) is spreading fast in ...
Tomorrow’s corn: Gene associated with resistance to multiple leaf diseases identified
Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a specific gene in corn that appears to be associated with resistance ...
Does the US grow too much GMO corn and soy, most used for livestock?
[Editor’s Note: Jayson Lusk is a food and agricultural economist and head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University.] ...
How EU could make GMO crop regulations more scientific
In recent years, the EU legislation on genetically modified (GM) crops has come under severe criticism. Among the arguments are ...
Canadian GMO salmon facility will require federal environmental risk assessment
A proposal to produce the world's first genetically modified salmon for human consumption in P.E.I. will face assessment, says the ...
Behind the NY Times glyphosate fiasco: Why anti-GMO activists turned on Ben & Jerry’s
The pile-on against Ben & Jerry's — "outed" for having traces of glyphosate in its ice creams — seems like ...
Herbicide-tainted Ben & Jerry’s ice cream? NY Times falls for anti-science group’s dubious attack on glyphosate
The Organic Consumers Association uses junk science testing organization to claim ice cream contains trace parts-per-billion of glyphosate—at least tens ...
UK expected to follow EU policy on neonicotinoid insecticides
Newly proud “environmentalist” Michael Gove is promising to deliver a “green Brexit” which will set global gold standards on policies ...
Sri Lankan scientist: Glyphosate herbicide ban not supported by sound science, hurts tea farmers
[Editor’s Note: Parakrama Waidyanatha is a scientist and former Chairman of the Coconut Research Institute.] The grapevine whispered to me ...
Agronomist: No amount of data will satisfy ‘anti-biotech extremists’ peddling precautionary principle
[Tim Durham is a professor of agronomy and agricultural science at Ferrum College in Virginia.] The [precautionary principle, or PP] ...
Studies claiming serious GMO crop risks published mostly in low quality journals and riddled with conflicts of interest, bad science
[Editor's note: Miguel Sanchez is Executive Director of ChileBio. Wayne Parrott is a professor of Crop Science at the University of ...
Robots replacing workers on labor-short California farms
Driscoll’s is so secretive about its robotic strawberry picker it won’t let photographers within telephoto range of it. But if ...
Parts per billion trace amounts of glyphosate herbicide found in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
A growing number of foods commonly found in kitchens across America have tested positive for glyphosate, the herbicide that is ...
Quebec’s plan to prohibit neonics and other pesticides upsets grain producers
Grain producers are not digesting the concept of pesticide regulation announced on [July 19] as part of the Quebec Pesticide ...
Chemist Derek Lowe: Panera Bread spreads misinformation on chemicals and food—yet again
[Editor's note: Derek Lowe is a Duke University-trained organic chemist.] [S]everal people alerted me to one of the latest ads ...
Lawsuit claims chemical companies ‘secretly’ encouraged illegal dicamba herbicide spraying
As suspected drift from dicamba took a toll on farmers the past two growing seasons, Monsanto ... publicly urged growers ...
10 ‘fake news’ unscientific buzzwords and health fads
[Editor's note: Alex Berezow is Senior Fellow of Biomedical Science at the American Council on Science and Health. He holds ...
Megafarms: ‘US model’ large-scale livestock farms offer efficiency—and consequences
Intensive farming of livestock offers many advantages over traditional open ranges, not least economies of cost and scale, more efficient ...
Ghana mulling genetic engineering to combat armyworm crop damage
[Ghana’s] Ministry of Environment, Science, Innovation and Technology has encouraged local scientists to intensify research into ways to fight the ...
Viewpoint: California activists ‘gamed system’ to get glyphosate herbicide labeled as carcinogen
Environmental activists found the perfect targets to help them defame the popular herbicide glyphosate — widely-accepted as safe — in ...
