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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GE labeling bill gets backing from natural-food, supplement group
The nation’s largest trade group for natural products is getting behind a legislative effort to require that consumers know when ...
A short list of points concerning genetic modification
Perhaps because I’ve had to repeat the following points many, many times–I’ve decided to put them in one place. I ...
Roseanne’s nuts about GMOs
Lately, a lot has been going on in the crop biotechnology arena in Hawai’i. There’s Hawai’i Bill 79, and Kaua’i ...
USDA chronicles rapid adoption of biotech crops
USDA recently released data summarizing the rapid adoption of herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant crops since their introduction in 1996. Based on ...
US leads in GE production
The United States is the world’s top producer of genetically modified organisms (GMO), followed by Brazil. The International Service for ...
Italy moves to ban growing of GE maize type
Three Italian ministries have signed a decree banning the cultivation of a type of genetically modified maize, citing environmental concerns, ...
Anti-GE activists warns of “GE domino effect”
The following is an edited excerpt. Before the Connecticut's GE labeling law can take effect, four other states, including at ...
Judge to FDA: Decide whether GMOs belong in “natural” products
Lawyers argue that it's time for the FDA determine this matter once and for all, so such cases stop "needlessly ...
Call to action: Grist reevaluates crop biotechnology; It’s time the rest of journalism does too
Grist is taking a bold step in reevaluating its anti-GE stance. It's the latest in many milestones for reason and ...
The precautionary principle is a blunt instrument
The precautionary principle is a blunt instrument, a 90s throwback out of place in an era of "smart solutions" and ...
UK: Chief horticulture scientist backs calls to lift GM crop restrictions
The following is an edited excerpt. The UK's Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) chief scientist Professor Ian Crute has ...
The precautionary principle is out-of-step with the modern world
In place of informed, real-world choices that include the potential implications of both doing something and not doing it, the ...
Japan’s harsh reaction to GM wheat rooted in culture and history
Why did Japan react so quickly and decisively (by suspending imports) to the discovery of unapproved GM wheat in Oregon? ...
Food Fight: Public interest groups challenge CSPI position on GE labeling
A fight between public interest groups that has been simmering under the surface for years has busted out into public ...
Cornell geneticist seeks to reinvent broccoli
The following is an edited excerpt. Broccoli hates too much heat, which is why 90 percent of it sold in ...
The biotech IPO scene turns red hot
The following is an edited excerpt. During all of last year there were only 11 biotech IPOs. But even that ...
Argentina cuts GM red tape
The following is an edited excerpt. Argentina has streamlined its biotech crop regulatory framework to ensure neither red tape nor ...
Lynas is planting “seeds of change” in the GM debate
The following is an edited excerpt. Mark Lynas’s conversion from an anti-GMO crusader to a champion for science and plant ...
The idea of open-sourcing GE attracts more interest
The following is an edited excerpt. Frederick Kaufman has penned a provocative article for Slate's Future Tense column in which ...
Roseanne Barr struggles to defend outrageous anti-GE claims
The following is an edited excerpt. I examined Roseanne Barr's response to my criticism in Anti-GMO Activist Roseanne Barr Goes ...
GE foods are not the enemy
The following is an edited excerpt. “Genetic Engineering (GE)” is the new curse word, and Monsanto is the latest incarnation ...
Activists lobbying Safeway to label GE foods
Safeway announced to its shoppers in a Facebook post last night that its O Organics products, which are certified USDA ...
Open-source GM: Separating Monsanto from modification
Open-source GMOs will "help fight climate change and stick one in Monsanto’s eye." ...
Folta: EU is throwing euros down a rat hole in quest to replicate Seralini study
The following is an edited excerpt. Last September's lumpy rat study by Seralini et al certainly whipped the wildly uncritical ...
Gates Foundation to finance biotech lab in Nigeria
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to build a standard biotechnology laboratory in Nigeria. The idea is to ...
Mystery lingers around origin of GE wheat in Oregon
When the fresh wheat samples arrived at her lab this spring, Carol Mallory-Smith, a weed scientist, didn’t know what to ...
A new anti-GE strategy: Go negative on rational thinking
If want to see a reasoned, rational debate on GMOs in Madagascar; the first place to start is with human ...
