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.
Non-GMO Wild Turkey whiskey? Latest absurd food label illustrates hypocritical anti-GMO cancer fears
[Editor’s note: Kevin Folta is a molecular biologist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] [April 2, ...
Biotech proponents ask Trump Administration to fast-track updated GMO regulations, unshackle innovation
In July 2015 the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, under President Barack Obama, mandated that the USDA, ...
How we can preserve biodiversity while maintaining agricultural yields, meet nutritional demands
[Editor's note: Claire Kremen is a professor of conservation biology at University of California, Berkeley, where she also co-directs the Center for Diversified ...
Video: Facts, fears and future of GMOs—in a nutshell
GMOs are one of the most controversial areas of science. Genetic engineering is used in many fields, but even though ...
Opposition to Dow-DuPont merger emerges among major farmer group
[Editor's note: The National Farmer's Union is the second largest general farm organization in the country. It represents more than 200,000 ...
Oregon considers new restrictions, labels for neonicotinoid insecticides over bee health concerns
Neonicotinoid pesticides, which critics blame for death and illness among pollinators, would be subject to new restrictions and labeling rules ...
Uganda’s president supports bill allowing country’s farmers to grow GMO crops
The pressure to pass the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill 2012 has started building up in recent weeks after some parts ...
New York Times’ Danny Hakim claimed GMOs haven’t increased crop yields; Here’s why he’s wrong
In October 2016, Danny Hakim of the New York Times wrote that GMOs hadn't fulfilled their promise of increased yields ...
Nobel laureate biochemist Sir John Roberts calls anti-GMO activism a ‘crime against humanity’
Though developed countries stand against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for specific political and economic reasons, it is an effective tool ...
Talking Biotech: What environmental hazards remain from accidental release of GMO grass seeds?
Oregon State's Carol Mallory-Smith says transgene flow from Roundup Ready bentgrass to non-GMO grass species offers lessons for regulators ...
Potato pest developing resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides
The potato industry may be losing a mainstay in the battle against [the plant-feeding insect] psyllids, according to a recent ...
Former UN head Kofi Annan: Science must play role in advancing agriculture, particularly in Africa
“Science and technology should play a role in raising agriculture productivity, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said [former secretary general of ...
Plant probiotics: Genetic switch in plants could trigger soil bacteria to increase crop yields
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have pinpointed a key genetic switch that helps soil bacteria ...
Video: Genetic modification isn’t as ‘unnatural’ as you think
[Editor's note: Jenna Gallegos is a plant biotechnology PhD student at the University of California - Davis and a member ...
Farmer’s view: Celebrities embrace organic cotton over GMOs, but is it more sustainable?
Emma Watson wants people to buy the latest fashions made with organic cotton. Would that be more sustainable than clothes ...
Non-GMO movement plagued by ‘rampant sexism’, critic says
It’s no secret that [moms are] among the most coveted demographics of the non-GMO marketing machine. Jeffrey Smith, one of ...
Australian commission calls for state governments to lift GM crop bans
The Productivity Commission has released a range of sweeping recommendations to cut the costs of regulation in agriculture. ... It ...
Animal cyborgs: 6 nature-inspired robots that could revolutionize science, medicine and farming
1. Light-controlled dragonflies In January, R&D company Draper and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced a partnership aimed at turning ...
ChemChina’s proposed takeover of Syngenta fuels GMO fears among some in China
The opposition to genetically altered food and grains in China has been brought to the forefront by China National Chemical’s ...
Ripen on demand? New generation of GMO crops could dramatically increase yield
Farmers could one day control when their crops ripen after the development of modified rice that flowers on demand. Despite ...
Worst 10 list: Advocacy groups that put ideology ahead of science on food and farming issues
Which organizations promote ideology over science in the debate over crop biotechnology? The list includes some of the most well-known ...
CRISPR gene editing could speed up photosynthesis and boost crop yields—But it will take time
Unlike previous approaches to GM crops that introduce foreign DNA into an organism, genome editing achieves much the same outcome ...
Herbicide glyphosate now labeled ‘carcinogenic’ under CA’s Prop 65—Law that some say ‘only benefits lawyers’
The state of California can now require Roundup to have a label on it stating that it is a possible ...
Extreme Green hypocrisy? Center for Biological Diversity, other anti-GMO groups partner on March for Science
[Editor's note: The following is an open letter to the Center for Biological Diversity regarding their participation in the "March ...
Beyond Golden Rice: Efforts abound to biofortify crops with vitamin A but regulatory hurdles high
[Editor's note: Giovanni Giuliano is research director at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development.] Since ...
Is post-Brexit Britain poised to embrace less political, more science-based approach to regulating pesticides?
[Editor's note: The following is a briefing paper on bees and neonicotinoids by the House of Commons Library, a library ...
Video: 14-year-old builds GMO food detector with parts ordered online for $110
While his classmates were playing video games or scrolling through Facebook, as many teenagers tend to do, Gaurav Mittal was ...
