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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Consumer groups push Japanese officials to impose stricter GMO labeling laws
Reports from Japan suggest officials are weighing up imposing stricter rules for the mandatory labelling of food items containing genetically ...
Western Australian Labor party officials scrap plans to try to block GMO crops
The Barnett Government changed regulations to allow the growth of GM canola in 2010, and hundreds of thousands of hectares ...
Wine with no hangover? CRISPR gene-edited yeast could make that happen
[R]esearchers working at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Services (ACES) claim to have produced a ...
Talking Biotech: How plants can be tweaked to ‘naturally’ fight disease
University of East Anglia's Jonathan Jones on how plants can be genetically modified to naturally fight diseases ...
3 disease resistant GMOs could address climate change and save farmers billions
The next generation of genetically engineered crops--if technology skeptics do not have their way--will bring a range of benefits to ...
Environmental, economic costs of EU neonicotinoid ban ‘devastating’, according to study
[A] potential ban or suspension of NNi [neonicotinoid seed treatment] technology would have tremendous economic implications.... To take few examples: over ...
Sustainability activists fear agrochemical, seed company monopolies will damage food security
... In the global agriculture sector, there have long been seven international manufacturers of pesticides and seeds, the report says ...
Top 5 ‘post-truth’ anti-GMO headlines: Biologist critiques outrageous 2016 claims
A reproductive biologist offers her take on the five most outrageous--but astronomically popular--anti-GMO advocacy blog headlines from last year, including ...
Can gene-edited plants reduce impact of climate change?
If there’s even a smidgen of hope in the climate change story, it’s that ultimately, humans will find a way to pull ...
Paper raises questions because Monsanto to supply seeds for NSF-funded student outreach
[Oregon State University received the] five-year [$4 million] grant from the National Science Foundation also has an educational component, providing ...
Farming practices, not glyphosate, primary driver of weed resistance
Editor's Note: This article features a talk given by Peter Sikkema, researcher at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus on ...
Sustainably produced ‘cow’s milk’ made using genetically engineered yeast coming to your breakfast table
...[T]he next trend for [milk] isn't a plant-based alternative: It's cow's milk—with a twist. Though nearly identical to the stuff you ...
Nobel Laureate Richard Roberts: Greenpeace, green lobby spread ‘lies’ about GMOs to raise money
Editor's Note: This article discusses a recent talk by Sir Richard Roberts, awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to ...
Democratic politicians’ mostly anti-GMO views lead list of liberal anti-science positions
... The liberal obsession with things that are “natural” or “organic” often also clashes with science...just because a product is ...
Big Ag megamerger? Trump meets with Bayer, Monsanto CEOs
Top executives of Bayer AG and Monsanto Co. met with President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday in New York to pitch the ...
Computer scientist Stephanie Seneff proposes questionable theory linking glyphosate to autism
[Editor's note: Stephanie Seneff, co-author of this paper, is a controversial MIT computer scientist and anti-GMO critic who has advanced ...
USDA to certify farmland switching from conventional to help increase production of organic food
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on [Jan. 11] took a step toward increasing the production of organic foods — which has not ...
Myth busting: Is agricultural pesticide use in the US, and its impact, going down or up?
Anti-GMO groups have shifted their focus from demonizing GMO crops directly to criticizing chemical usage, particularly the herbicide glyphosate, for ...
Rusty-patched bumble bee listed as endangered, neonic pesticides pose ‘particular threat’, says USFWS
The rusty patched bumble bee ... was listed on [Jan. 10] as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the ...
Kelly v Graham: Should scientists ‘stay out’ of politics?
The question of whether scientists should take special restraint in not lacing their pubic engagement on science issues with politics ...
New RNAi spray formulation protects plants from viral infection for 20 days
...[A] team at the University of Queensland in Australia has managed to achieve long-lasting gene silencing inside plant cells. They ...
Will economic protectionism prevent Europe from competing in crop gene editing race?
America and China are leading the development of new gene editing technologies via GMO production and bringing CRISPR to the ...
First genetically modified non-browning apples in Midwest stores by February
A small amount of Arctic brand sliced and packaged Golden Delicious, produced by Okanagan Specialty Fruits of Summerland, B.C., will ...
GM herbicide-tolerant crops reduce overall herbicide use
Editor’s Note: This blog by geneticist Anastasia Bodnar evaluates whether claims made by the biotechnology industry that GM foods decrease ...
Will gene editing promote ‘industrial farming’? Are there sustainable alternatives?
Editor's Note: This article was written by two members of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, an ...
Will the public be more accepting of next-generation gene-edited crops than GMOs?
A new generation of crops known as gene-edited rather than genetically modified is coming to the market. Created through new ...
Video GMO story: The near death and rescue of the Hawaiian papaya
The anti-GMO movement in Hawaii grew into a sizable force in 2013 thanks to funding and directional support from activist ...
