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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10 photos that capture how humans have genetically modified food for centuries
Just about everyone these days has someone in their life –a friend, a relative, a co-worker– who subscribes to the ...
Armyworms ravaging African staple crops: GM insect resistant crops offer a solution
[Editor's note: The following is an interview with Kenneth Wilson, professor at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University.] A combination of ...
Disease-resistant GMO banana field trial approved in Australia
A trial of genetically modified bananas will begin south of Darwin [Australia] in a few months after a five-year trial ...
Can Europe reform its GMO regulatory sausage-making mess?
Jean-Claude Juncker has had enough of EU states scapegoating Brussels for their failures. Over his first two years as president ...
Post-modernism fans world-wide skepticism of modern technology, endangering biotech revolution
[Editor's note: Marcel Kuntz is Research Director at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)] Postmodernism is an ...
Seed catalogues for dummies: Everything gardeners need to know about hybrids, heirlooms and GMOs
Nurseries, home improvement stores and even grocery stores may have racks of seeds available when it’s time to start gardening, ...
Environmentally friendly farm chemicals? Bio-insecticides edge closer to reality
A 'new generation' of environmentally friendly pesticides is a step closer as researchers make an important breakthrough in pest control ...
Bee crisis? How intelligent sticky drones could buzz alongside nature’s pollinators
Tiny drones dressed in horsehair and coated with a sticky goo have been attempting to pollinate lilies in a Japanese ...
Without Glyphosate, What Would Farming Look Like?
Dave Walton--who grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa and hay, and is director of the Iowa Soybean Association—discusses the ecological consequences if ...
Harvard School of Public Health accused of scare mongering about conventional food, promoting organics
[Editor's note: Kevin Folta is a molecular geneticist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] Apparently ...
To help bees and farmers, EU should roll back ‘fear-based’ ban on neonicotinoid pesticides
[Editor's note: The following is a letter by David Zaruk, Belgian-based environmental-health journalist specializing in science and public policy, to Vytenis ...
Technology In Farming And Food: Farmers And Producers Need To Build Trust
Consumers expect more than quality and safety; they want the supply chain to be transparent. Farmers and food companies that ...
Biotech critics in Oregon look to overturn state’s block of local GMO bans
Biotech critics are calling on Oregon lawmakers to overturn a prohibition against local government restrictions on genetically engineered crops because ...
Trump Administration has opportunity to base biotech regulations on science, not fears
At least when it comes to biotechnology, the president's order freezing recent regulations provides a chance to get regulations right ...
Scotland’s first minister: GMO ban will remain post-Brexit
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon extolled the importance of scientific advice in policy-making yet insisted her Government had no plans to ...
Kenyan farmer: We’ve been waiting for too long —government needs to let us grow GMO crops
[Editor's note: Gilbert Arap Bor grows maize, vegetables and dairy cows on a small farm in Kenya. Mr. Bor, a ...
Talking Biotech: Clay nanoparticles deliver plants gene-silencing virus-protecting RNA spray
Revolutionizing crop protection? Biotechnologist Neena Mitter on 'bioclay' — spray that protects plants from a virus using nanoparticles to deliver ...
Soybeans resistant to herbicide dicamba will improve weed control but may not meet expectations
A barrier to weed control on soybean farms has been lifted after the [EPA]Â approved a label allowing use of the ...
India may further cut Monsanto GMO cotton royalty, eventually to zero
Regardless of technology companies like Monsanto crying foul, the Modi government is likely to follow a plan to reduce the ...
American farm bust: Global competition, low prices, high seed costs push farmers to the edge
Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of ...
Nigerian biotech expert says GMOs won’t replace conventional seeds, refutes common GMO myths
[Editor's note: The following is an interview with Rose Gidado, Country Coordinator of the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in ...
Pesticides just one tool in the modern farmer’s pest management toolbox
Modern farming involves much more than just spraying pesticides to keep pests at bay. Farmers must employ a broad array ...
Non-GMO? Organic? Natural? Do food ‘buzzwords’ help consumers make healthy choices?
Picture the cereal aisle (and marvel at the fact that there is an aisle just for cereal). Next, think of ...
Search for targeted pesticides leads scientists to eavesdrop on crosstalk between plants and fungi
In this conversation between plants and fungi, the organisms rely on a well-worn mechanism of gene-expression regulation that has stood ...
Norway mulling approval of gene-edited salmon that can’t reproduce with wild fish
The Norwegian Biotechnology Council is considering whether to approve the method of producing genetically modified type of salmon... The method, ...
To feed a growing, hungry global population, we need more plant breeders
Plant breeders are in short supply as the human population heads to an estimated nine billion in 2050 and they ...
Were ‘activist scientists’ behind European Union neonicotinoids ban?
[Editor's note: Henry Miller is a physician and molecular biologist who was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology.] ...
