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.
Bacteria genetically engineered to make indigo could make dying jeans ‘greener’
Blue jeans get their signature color from indigo, a dye. Producing that indigo releases chemicals that can pollute water and ...
EU fights ‘STOP TTIP’ activists campaign maligning US crops with YouTube videos
In early 2013, President Barack Obama's call for a U.S.-EU trade deal generated such optimism in Europe that the graffiti ...
#CRISPRfacts media debate over Wired’s hype of gene editing technique
On July 21, WIRED magazine released its August issue with a cover story on the controversial new gene-editing technique CRISPR. Under the headline “The Genesis ...
Ayyadurai’s formaldehyde-in-GMOs claim challenged, engineer refuses verification offer
Engineer and system biologist V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai claim that there are dangerous levels of formaldehyde in GMO crops is about ...
As disease threatens Uganda’s banana crop, ActionAid and anti-GMO groups fan fears
Uganda is an emerging battle ground where anti-GMO activists try to scuttle introduction of a transgenic banana that could rescue ...
80% of Americans demand mandatory labeling of ASOs–Artificially Selected Organisms
A new petition to Whitehouse.gov demands mandatory labeling for all “artificially selected organisms” (ASOs). The petition reads: ASO plants or ...
Food and ideology don’t mix: There’s not one way to feed world
There’s an unbreachable divide between advocates of modern conventional agriculture and, essentially, everyone else, from the mainstream (organic, local, anti-GMO) ...
How one farmer uses GMO corn to reduce pesticides, increase sustainability
In a wide, brown field, Bret Davis opens a pocketknife with a click, kneels down and scrapes through a furrow ...
How low-quality research is used as activist propaganda
The paper published in Agricultural Sciences by Shiva Ayyadurai presents a hypothesis that transgenic soybeans are high in formaldehyde and ...
Mental health leading cause of farmer suicide in India, not indebtedness from buying GMO seeds
For over a decade, farmer suicides in India has been a serious public policy concern. More recently, this has led ...
Hero of Neil Young’s anti-GMO doc ‘Seeding Fear’ is confessed thief
Neil Young has followed up his anti-GMO attack album with a new propaganda mini-doc about the evils of Monsanto. Now ...
Bees not dying; Europe should lift neonics ban
Brussels banned a class of pesticides to avert a ‘beepocalypse’ that wasn’t happening. Now bugs threaten crops, and farmers may ...
GMOs contain formaldehyde? Kevin Folta challenge: ‘Let’s cooperate on lab analysis’ (crickets)
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai recently published a systems biology paper in Agricultural Sciences. The report left much to be desired, and ...
Examining claims GMO cotton causing Indian suicide epidemic
One major accusation of evil on the part of GMOs and Monsanto is forcing Indian farmers into debt through expensive seed that cannot be ...
Talking Biotech: GMO rescue of American chestnut tree and genetic history of lettuce
American chestnut tree GMO revival: William Powell; DNA of lettuce: Richard Michelmore ...
Monsanto refutes claims in Neil Young’s documentary
Monsanto, a company that manufactures genetically engineered seeds for agriculture that has sparked the ire of Neil Young, has issued ...
Rice with barley genes emits less greenhouse gas
A new type of genetically modified (GM) rice might significantly lessen the impact of agriculture on the climate. The plant, ...
Open letter to Consumer Reports: Organic alternatives to glyphosate not necessarily safer
Dear Consumer Reports, In the article Beat Those Weeds (Which was, somewhat ironically, published in the YOUR ADVOCATE section of ...
UK lifts EU ban on neonics to allow farmers to fight pests
Farmers will be able to use blacklisted pesticides linked to serious harm in bees after the UK government temporarily lifted ...
Why regulators conclude glyphosate safe while IARC, alone, claims it could cause cancer?
Glyphosate joins apples, coffee, sunning and night shift work as an IARC "probable" carcinogen. But the real risk to humans ...
Biofortifying crops for better nutrition helps improve health of poorest
When I started my career as an economist 30 years ago, I had no idea that I would eventually work ...
New study challenges Moms Across America claim glyphosate present in mothers’ breastmilk
Washington State University scientists have found that glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, does not accumulate in mother's ...
Star Trek, synbio and sustainable food: Will Friends of the Earth and other activists block the future?
Far as we are from instantaneous synthesis of food on command, advances in synbio and genetic engineering offer a glimpse ...
House passes voluntary GMO labeling law as Senate girds for fight
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, July 23, passed a hotly debated measure that would set up a system ...
East African countries face harsh biosafety restrictions in expanding gene editing research
For scientists across the globe in agricultural value chain to counteract the upcoming challenges likely to be faced by factors ...
