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.
India’s agriculture ministry has ‘no reservations about promoting GM mustard’
The agriculture ministry ... said it has no reservations about GM mustard, which has been cleared by an expert panel ...
Plants vs pathogens: CRISPR-created crops fend off pests, add nutrition
Potato blight sparked the Irish famine in the 19th century, causing a million people to starve to death and another ...
China lobbies public on GMOs as ChemChina’s takeover of Syngenta nears approval
China will carry out a nationwide poll [June 2017] to test the public’s acceptance of genetically-modified food, a technology the ...
‘Inextricably linked’ anti-vaccine and anti-GMO movements cause preventable suffering
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's recent coverage of the Organic Consumers Association's and other anti-GMO groups' links to the anti-vaccine ...
Maine approves 3 genetically engineered blight resistant potatoes that reduce pesticide use
With little fanfare, the Maine Board of Pesticides Control unanimously approved ... the registration of three new types of genetically ...
Infographic: India poised to dramatically increase its global GMO footprint
GM crop footprint in India is all set to grow once the government gives its final nod to GM Mustard, ...
GMO-free top labeling issue for 13% of consumers
In recent years, public awareness campaigns have aimed to inform consumers of the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but ...
To feed 1.4 billion people China technologizing its agriculture sector–Will it be enough?
China’s 1.4 billion people are building up an appetite that is changing the way the world grows and sells food ...
New GE rice variety boosts plant’s immune system to fight multiple diseases at once
Plants don’t have a bloodstream to circulate immune cells. Instead, they use receptors on the outsides of their cells to ...
Americans pay less attention to ‘organic’ and ‘GMO’ in weighing food health benefits, survey finds
Determining what exactly is a "healthy" food has us all scratching our heads. A new survey suggests that most Americans ...
Less milkweed due to herbicide likely contributed to early monarch butterfly declines, study finds
[Monarch butterfly] numbers ... are shrinking. New research at Michigan State University, published in the current issue of the journal ...
Fate of approval of India’s first GMO food crop—mustard—unsure after sudden death of environment minister
Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan was, ... given an additional charge of the Environment Ministry after ...
Democrats accuse Trump of turning USDA into ‘pro-industry advertising business’ in support of GMOs
[T]he Department of Agriculture under President Trump is throwing its weight behind genetically modified foods with a new GMO-friendly information ...
Talking Biotech: Can ‘vertical farming’ help feed world’s growing population?
What is the potential for agriculture to move indoors—and into cities—as we try to feed more people on less land? ...
Mimicking gene changes in mutant cherry tomatoes can nearly double production
Plant geneticists have figured out how to almost double the production of garden tomatoes. Though most of us care mainly ...
GMO rescue of American chestnut tree may take longer than anticipated
The nearly century-old effort to employ selective breeding to rescue the American chestnut, which has been rendered functionally extinct by ...
Activists claim that without long-term studies, GMOs cannot be considered safe: What does science say?
No multi-generational GMO food studies? Bollocks. There are dozens, and all conclude biotech seeds are as safe or safer than ...
What would Whole Foods look like if it were ‘science-based’?
[Editor’s note: Jenny Splitter is a writer, storyteller and mother of two.] Whole Foods used to be my idea of ...
Why GMOs face tough go in China despite huge imports and successful crops
[Editor’s note: Mark Lynas is an author and journalist who reports on crop biotechnology around the world.] Sometimes I hear ...
Plants that ‘fertilize themselves’? Gene discovery could lead to reductions in synthetic fertilizer use
The lessons of plant diversity and competition learned from a clover patch, which are featured in a special issue of ...
Mandatory GMO labeling of foods overwhelmingly defeated in Canadian Parliament
Members of the Canadian Parliament voted against approving mandatory labeling of genetically modified [GMO] foods in a vote in the ...
Hype and agroecology: Is ‘low input’ farming better for the environment and economy?
[Editor's note: Henry Miller, physician and molecular biologist, is a fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s ...
Early warning child allergy detection system? Competing theories of how to inoculate children against developing reactions
Allergic reactions to foods can strike young children without warning. Now, a controversial blood test may be able to detect ...
Feeding the world: Will GMO seeds rescue yields as global climates dry and heat up?
Take the argument that more heat- and drought-resistant seeds are what’s needed to cope with climate change. The good people ...
US flower sellers forced to destroy 9 varieties of petunias after tests show they’re genetically modified
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced [May 16] that U.S. flower distributors have begun to destroy countless petunia plants ...
Conflict of interest? Mother Jones’ Tom Philpott’s connections to organic industry raise concerns
Journalist Tom Philpott, who covers food and farming issues at Mother Jones, was recently the keynote speaker at a fundraising ...
Infographic: Who to trust—and who not to trust—about food and farming
With conflicting claims about scientific topics everywhere on the internet, it’s hard to know who to trust. This is especially ...
