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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Vegetable oils are often maligned as “industrial seed oils” that cause inflammation and oxidate damage. What does science say?
In the nutrition world, few topics are currently as polarizing as vegetable oils! While mainstream health guidelines typically advocate for ...
Plastic for dinner? Newly discovered microbes may soon be a lunch treat
There are microbes that look at a plastic bottle and go, “Yum”. Do you think you’d ever look at a ...
Podcast: Glyphosate doesn’t cause Celiac disease or alter gluten structure
Disinformation clouds the public understanding of science, especially technology in agriculture and medicine. So when a leading journal publishes false ...
More than a dozen federal agencies oversee America’s food system. What can be done to clean up this regulatory mess
Complex and disparately funded regulatory oversight for food and beverage products, spread out among many federal agencies, has created a ...
Perhaps carbohydrates, not meat, provided early humans the energy needed to evolve bigger brains
From crispy French fries to crusty sourdough loaves, carbs are an integral (and delicious) part of the human diet. But why ...
Rwanda launches Gates-funded project to develop drought, virus and blight resistant crops
Farmers and agriculture sector leaders have said they expect a new five-year scheme called Rwanda Agricultural Biotechnology Program, to support improvement ...
This AI-powered ‘electronic tongue’ in development can detect if your food is spoiled or rotten
Ever wondered if that old carton of fruit juice in the back of your fridge is still safe to drink? ...
African scientists challenge activist claims that crop biotechnology revolution spreading across Africa threatens continent’s plant biodiversity
Do genetically modified (GM) pose a threat to the Africa’s plant biodiversity? ...
America has fallen behind in biomanufacturing. Is there a way to solve this issue?
As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, the United States has fallen behind when it comes to biomanufacturing. Our nation's supply chains ...
Food is medicine? 4 reasons why we need to be cautious about jumping aboard the FIM movement
Food is Medicine (FIM) programs are gaining national attention and funding as a method to treat chronic food-related diseases by ...
Viewpoint: The U.S. Dietary Guidelines are broken. Here’s what needs to be done to fix it.
To address this [chronic disease] crisis, for children and adults alike, our response should be bipartisan. As former members [Janet ...
Video—Viewpoint: Nutritionist Dr. Sarah Ballantyne: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen vegetables and fruits is ‘fear-mongering’ and “not scientifically credible’
The Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list is based on the number of pesticide residue detections found on foods, but ...
Poland dodges crop genetic modification ban, renews use of GM as animal feed
Polish farmers will be able to continue using animal fodder containing imported genetically modified soya or other GMO crops for ...
6 ways Russia deploys its disinformation bots to smear the agriculture and food practices of the U.S. and West
In order to push its geopolitical goals, the Russian Federation uses multiple propaganda tools, with topics ranging from global and ...
How do we feed future astronauts on Mars?
Unrelenting radiation, along with electrostatic discharge from planet-wide dust storms, drove chemical reactions in the arid Martian dirt, ultimately leaving ...
A five-star recipe for cutting food waste?
A comprehensive report on food waste published in [March 2024] by the United Nations Environment Programme shares some sobering statistics: ...
Nobel Prize winner Emmanuelle Charpentier on why biotechnology-wary Europe should embrace plant gene editing
Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry Emmanuelle Charpentier speaks. The authoritative opinion of the French biochemist and geneticist who received an ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming and food will always be a niche product for the urban elite without significant health or environmental benefits
There are many claims that people make about organic farming. It is supposed to be healthier, more environmentally friendly, and ...
Insect-resistant, genetically modified Bt cotton revolutionized farming in India. Now it faces challenges. Here’s why
[Insect resistant] Bt cotton has played a transformative role in India’s agricultural landscape, especially in the cotton farming sector. Introduced ...
Exploring the sustainability challenges of genetically modified crops
Genetically modified (GM) crops are widely used around the world, but their effects on the environment need to be explored ...
Asteroids could make a ‘tasty treat’ in space
Astronauts embarking on long-haul journeys in deep space can’t pack all the calories they will need in the form of ...
Scientists racing to save disease-threatened bananas see potential in genetically modified varieties
Chiquita Brands International [has] bred a new banana called the Yelloway 1 that is resistant to [Tropical Race 4 disease] ...
Industrial intelligence: ‘A paradigm shift comparable to historic innovations like the horse-drawn seed drill in agriculture’
Industries across the board are on the cusp of a revolution driven by technological changes like AI, analytics and digital ...
Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past
In Africa, like anywhere, hunger is driven by many interwoven factors, not all of which are a consequence of farming ...
Are weeds destined to win their escalating assault on agriculture?
Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to ...
How AI is already optimizing food production
[A]rtificial intelligence, or AI, is already being harnessed to optimize food production. Technology products that are currently on the market ...
New Zealand poised to soften restrictions on genetically modified crops by the end of the year, green light gene editing
For nearly three decades, New Zealand’s strict regulations around genetic modification have more or less confined research opportunities to the ...
