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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Korean Muslim group becomes latest religious organization to issue a Fatwa approving cultivated meat as Halal
Cultivated meat can be considered Halal and consumed by Muslims, provided they’re sourced and produced in accordance with Halal standards, ...
Viewpoint: How ‘dark money’ donor advised foundations partner with tort lawyers, the organic industry and activist environmental funds to manipulate the media and target conventional agriculture
A herbicide company pays $25,000 to a pro-GMO plant biologist’s university for six months of travel expenses and the activist ...
‘Probiotics is a waste of money’: Scientists push back against Dr. Oz claims that the supplements he promotes provide health benefits
Our bodies—and guts, specifically—depend on a balance of bacteria to “maintain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels,” but “you gotta ...
5 actions the Trump administration could and should take (but probably won’t) to contain bird flu
First, vaccinating poultry is critical to preventing flock outbreaks and must be a cornerstone of the nation’s avian influenza prevention ...
Women have long been encouraged to monitor their nutrition during pregnancy. Men need to watch their food intake too—but before conception
For decades, fertility research has focused on maternal health, but groundbreaking new research is shifting the conversation. A growing body ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s tariffs are squeezing American farmers. We are still in wait-and-see territory but tensions are building
The trade war hit my farm and greenhouse business here in northwest Missouri on March 4. The first email I ...
Cosmic cuisine: Synthetic biologists are exploring cellular agriculture to grow food in space
[P]roducing food in space is incredibly difficult. There is very limited space aboard spacecraft, and microgravity impacts the growth of ...
Viewpoint: For European farming to innovate, patents are critical
EU policymakers are currently negotiating new rules for developing innovative plant varieties through new genomic techniques (NGTs). These techniques allow plant breeders ...
Defining healthy: Three uniquely effective ways to measure your health — and what it has to do with food
In the U.S., we spend almost $5 trillion on healthcare, 17.6% of our GDP — that’s $14,750 per person. And ...
Varroa mites, not pesticides, are by far the largest threat to honeybee health. Developing RNAi technology shows promise in addressing that crisis
Pictures of honeybees show up in prehistoric cave paintings, one stretching back 8,000 years ago in Spain. The ancient Egyptians were ...
Bayer plans appeal and hopes for legislative relief after $2.2 billion Roundup-glyphsate verdict
A Cobb County, Georgia, jury awarded plaintiff John Barnes $2.065 billion in compensation and damages on March 21 in ...
While raw milk increases health risk by 70,000% percent, cheese made from raw milk is safe to eat
The only real way to wipe out H5N1, the bird flu that has been ruining egg prices since last year, ...
GLP Spaces on X: Deadly Thin Mints? $5 million chemical tort scam targets Girl Scout cookies
Tired of chasing ambulances and suing chemical companies, tort lawyers have identified a new villain: the Girl Scouts. You may ...
Ultra-processed foods lead to chronic diseases? Bread, breakfast cereals, yogurt and dairy desserts are all associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes
[G]iven the prevailing sense of certainty that ultraprocessed foods are a prime culprit in chronic disease, it may surprise you ...
Are humans in decline and doomed for extinction? This book argues ‘yes’
Sure, there’s always the threat of global nuclear war and a massive planet-killing asteroid or cometary impact. But in his ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate hysteria pushed by RFK, Jr. and MAHA allies throws a dark cloud over modern agriculture
[L]ooming concerns such as talk of a possible glyphosate ban and tight time lines for national carbon emission goals have ...
Viewpoint: Kill Prop 65—It’s past time to ditch California’s science-twisting and misguided attacks on safe-as-used chemicals
Proposition 65 was a voter referendum that stated if a chemical was correlated to cancer, it needed to have a ...
Viewpoint: India has a huge opportunity on gene editing:—This isn’t about corporate-controlled GM crops. It’s about empowering farmers with healthier and more resilient plants.’
Imagine mangoes growing in the deserts of Rajasthan, wheat that thrives in extreme heat and provides higher nutrition, or rice ...
Combating global micronutrient deficiencies: Israeli scientists deploy gene editing to develop vitamin-rich lettuce
Israeli scientists successfully used CRISPR gene-editing technology to develop a nutrient-enhanced variety of lettuce, marking a breakthrough in efforts to ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is like banning life-saving medicines because some patients take overdoses’: Pakistan debates banning key agricultural chemicals that some say are misused
A proposed government ban on 12 widely used agrochemicals has triggered alarm across Pakistan's agriculture sector as experts warn it ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s announced “much-needed” agricultural ‘reforms’ are ‘indiscriminate’, ‘contradict the administration’s stated priorities’ and ‘undermine American innovation’
The early days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term saw a record number of executive orders, an almost immediate freeze ...
Does eating organic foods lower your risk of cancer?
Overall, when it comes to crops that produce food like fruits and vegetables, the main difference is that organic is ...
Promoted by RFK, Jr. and food influencers bashing seed oils is in fashion. Nutrition scientists shake their heads at this mass ignorance
[‘Seed oil’] is the catchy description coined by internet influencers, wellness gurus and some politicians to refer to common cooking ...
Planting trees to slow climate change—there’s a method to it
Any tree will suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into plant tissue. But it adding a little ...
Viewpoint: Food security vs. sustainability aspirations—Reality hijacks European Green Deal advocates
The EU aimed to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 with the European Green Deal (GDR) announced in December ...
Viewpoint: Fact checking controversial eight claims by Dr. Oz — Health science often left behind
Over 13 seasons of “The Dr. Oz Show,” from 2009 to 2022, [Mehmet Oz] told viewers what to eat, how ...
Turning the humble potato into a bruise-resistant and vitamin-enriched super spud—thanks CRISPR gene editing
As the world searches for more efficient and hardier crops to feed our growing population, one company has been looking ...
