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.
Next ‘big thing’ in agriculture? Genetically modified microbes
Editor's Note: This article was written by Matthew Wallenstein, an associate professor at Colorado State University and director of its ...
Talking Biotech: Fred Gould, chair of National Academies of Sciences GMO report, reaffirms safety of biotech crops
Fred Gould, chair of National Academies of Science review of biotech crops, reaffirms GMO safety and sustainability ...
Has inaccurate science reporting contributed to public mistrust of GMO foods?
Popular publications and blogs appear unfazed by professional science’s unanimous support for the safety of GM foods and their accompanying ...
Environmental activists sue EPA in challenge of approved Monsanto glyphosate-dicamaba Xtend herbicide mix
Environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on January 27th in attempt to force the agency to take another look ...
Ghana scientist speaks out against efforts to derail appointment of pro-GMO ag minister
Editor's Note: This article written by Walter Sandow Alhassan, the director of Biotechnology and Stewardship for Sustainable Agriculture, is a ...
CRISPR co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna: Gene-editing will improve global health
An initiative launched two years ago by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco to use CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to develop ...
Improved herbicides only a ‘temporary fix’ for herbicide-resistant weeds
Editor's note: This article was authored by Nathan Donley is a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, a group ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Can changes acquired during an organism’s life be passed on?
Epigenetics Around the Web is a weekly roundup of the latest studies and news in the field of epigenetics presented ...
Will the Arctic Apple usher in a wave of genetically engineered fruits and vegetables?
The non-browning Arctic Apple is the latest food genetically engineered to help tackle the global food waste problem. These types ...
Kenya unveils first-ever GMO label, riling activists who want imports banned
The government has launched a genetically modified organism labelling mark that will be attached to food products on sale. Willy Tonui, ...
Non-browning Arctic Apple hit shelves February 1: Will they change consumers’ opinions about GMOs?
The fruit, sold sliced and marketed under the brand Arctic Apple, could hit a cluster of Midwestern grocery stores as ...
GMO mustard approval in India stalled by lawsuit alleging scientists deceived public on crop’s benefits
India’s long-standing push to approve genetically modified (GM) food crops has been controversially delayed, after an environmental campaigner launched a ...
Majority of farmers say GMOs allow them to minimize pesticides and conserve water, survey finds
Editor's Note: This article discusses a recent survey by the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and National Corn Growers Association. According ...
Economists, in ‘predatory’ journal, challenge Syngenta study finding neonics pose ‘low risk’ to bees
Editor's Note: This article discusses the attack on a Syngenta study by economists published in the Environmental Sciences Europe titled "An experiment ...
CRISPR, EXZACT technologies boost gene-editing efficiency in plants from 1% to 90%
The perfect seed doesn’t exist—but can it? Breeders have tried without success for decades to perfectly combine yield, disease tolerance ...
USDA’s GAIN report: China to grow its own GE crops by 2020
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the US Department of Agriculture's Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) annual report ...
USDA, FDA proposals on gene editing aimed at ‘modernizing biotech regulations’
Editor's note: This story discusses proposed plans for new regulations for gene-edited plants and animals by the FDA and the USDA ...
Agriculture Department: No gag order on its scientists
Employees of the scientific research arm at the Agriculture Department were ordered Monday to cease publication of “outward facing” documents and news ...
How GMO crops can help feed world’s growing population in time of climate change
Editor's Note: This article was written by Stuart Thompson, a senior lecturer in Plant Biochemistry at the University of Westminster ...
US withdrawal from Trans Pacific Partnership worries nation’s cattle producers
On [January 23], he signs [a Presidential memorandum that withdraws] the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. What’s more, he has ...
Decoding wheat genome enhances production in the face of severe climate disruptions
Editor's note: Wheat rust and spot blotch are two fungal diseases that cause a devastating amount of crop damage around ...
Bill Gates: ‘Disease resistant, biofortified cassava one of reasons I’m optimistic about Africa’
A recent opinion poll found that the majority of Americans are optimistic about 2017. Although 2016 was a tough year ...
Science moms: Girl Scouts ‘cave’ to anti-science protests by introducing non-GMO cookie
… The campaign to pressure the GSUSA into dropping ingredients sourced from plants engineered with modern molecular techniques, better known ...
Kenyan scientists challenge government officials to lift GMO field trials moratorium
Scientists and students have been piling pressure on the government to lift the ban on GMOs that has been in ...
Will Trump cut funding of UN agency accused of ‘shoddy science’ for designating glyphosate probable carcinogen?
Editor's note: This article discusses the International Agency (IARC) for Research on Cancer, a sub-group of the World Health Organization ...
#GlyphosateIsVital: British farmers take to social media to defend herbicide’s environmental benefits
The Twitter campaign under the hashtag #glyphosateisvital has been backed by a number of British farmers, who have posted tweets ...
Bangladeshi farmers worry growing more GMO potatoes could hurt exports, particularly to Russia
After a recent initiatives to grow more resilient GM potatoes, the Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetable and Allied Products Exporters' Association worry ...
