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.
Less toxic cigarettes? ‘Genetic road map’ of tobacco could lead to reduced carcinogen levels
A new genetic road map of tobacco has been used to successfully identify and clone two mutated genes associated with ...
‘Science moms’ defend Food Evolution movie against Zen Honeycutt’s ‘propaganda’ accusation
[Written by Alison Bernstein, Layla Katiraee, Jenny Splitter, Kavin Senapathy, and Anastasia Bodnar.] Despite numerous statements that the producers had creative ...
Opinion: ‘Fear-based’ food labels—like Dannon’s GMO-free claims—undermine confidence in safe food system
[Editor's note: Kent Messer is a professor at the University of Delaware.] As a behavioral economist, I analyze what motivates ...
Is pink bollworm pest developing resistance to GMO Bt corn in India?
Genetically modified or Bt cotton is no longer resistant to pink bollworm - a major pest in Mahahrashtra, prompting the state government to write ...
Is it true there are no long term GMO safety studies?
Anti-GMO activists call for longer animal feed studies to assess the safety of GMOs. But are longer tests really necessary? ...
Crop yields limited by genes more than nutrition, water and sunlight
You might think that plants grow according to how much nutrition, water and sunlight they are exposed to, but new ...
Consumer opposition stalls GM feed crops that could revolutionize Australia’s dairy industry
The [Australian] dairy industry’s greatest innovations in a generation — genetically modified high-energy ryegrass and virus-resistant clover — have still ...
Talking Biotech: Domesticating wild plants to seed new crops and foods
Brazilian plant physiologist Lazaro Peres: Using genetic technology to identify desirable traits in wild plants and create new crops ...
Letter denouncing Food Evolution as ‘propaganda’ misses opportunity for constructive GMO discussion
[Terrance Bradshaw is the director of the University of Vermont's Apple and Grape Program and Horticulture Research and Education Center ...
Tomorrow’s greenhouse: Artificial intelligence-controlled ‘food computers’ grow better-tasting crops
Inside a shipping container-sized box at MIT Media Lab, crops of basil are growing in micro-climates designed by artificial intelligence ...
LA Times: Food Evolution GMO movie persuasive not polemical, ‘potentially revolutionary’
Calm, careful, potentially revolutionary, "Food Evolution" is an iconoclastic documentary on a hot-button topic. Persuasive rather than polemical, it's the ...
Viewpoint: US Right to Know uses ‘big tobacco strategy’ to attack, discredit, scare academics
[Editor's note: Stuart Smyth is a professor in the University of 
Saskatchewan’s agricultural and resource economics department and holds the ...
Harmful, beneficial or no effect? Flawed European bees and neonicotinoids study could be misused to support ban
A widely-discussed 3-country study showed no clear impact of neonics on bees. Why did the authors appear to explain away ...
‘Cow of the future’: Genetically engineered ‘heat resistant’ cattle could adapt to climate change
Scientists are developing a breed of genetically-modified 'cows of the future' that will be more heat resistant and have superior ...
‘Game changer’ herbicide that could supplement glyphosate developed from anti-malaria chemical
Researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) have used chemicals destined to develop new treatments for malaria as a ...
Redefining natural selection: How synthetic biology may solve sustainability challenges in food, fuel and health
[S]ynthetic biology] is poised to change how we feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, fuel ourselves—and possibly even change our very selves ...
Independent health agencies disagree with IARC’s glyphosate cancer designation
The list of [Proposition 65] labeled substances [in California] includes marijuana smoke (but eating marijuana is fine, by California standards), ...
GMO rice that could reduce synthetic fertilizer usage developed by Indian scientists
New GM rice developed by [India's] National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) can improve uptake of natural Phosphorus from ...
Vinegar may activate ‘epigenetic switch’ that could increase crops’ drought tolerance
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) have discovered a new, yet simple, way to increase drought ...
Organic crop farming in US slides even as demand for organic food increases
The time is ripe for Jeff Bezos to work his business acumen on an area of the US food system ...
Chinese government, Dow Chemical work together to convince public GMO foods safe
With a population of 1.4 billion and limited arable land, China is trying hard to convince citizens to accept genetically ...
Hollywood Reporter on Food Evolution: ‘Polished and provocative’, challenges ‘enviro-activist orthodoxy’
THE BOTTOM LINE: A polished and provocative call for activists to be as scientifically minded as they believe they are ...
Backlash to flawed ‘landmark’ European neonicotinoid study: Inconclusive data suggest both health benefits and harm
Upside down news: A backlash by independent scientists has begun to emerge, challenging sensational accounts of a 'landmark' European field ...
Kenya’s parliament calls for approval of GM corn field trails, rebuffing health secretary
[Kenya's] parliament has called for approval of field trials of genetically modified maize because the ban on GMO imports did not ...
USDA requests ‘stakeholders’ feedback as it researches what to say in federal GMO label guidelines
The U.S. Agriculture Department's Agricultural Marketing Service has started the process of figuring out how to write the guidelines for ...
Following controversial neonicotinoid study, researchers warn replacement pesticides may be worse for bees
Two large-scale studies published Thursday [June 29] suggest that common pesticides may harm bee colonies. In some cases, the pesticides ...
Antioxidant-boosting GMO purple rice could decrease cancer and other health risks
Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to ...
