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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Luddites are losing the battle over GM crops
The following is an edited excerpt. Most speech writers would have advised a more cautious line of attack. Most spin ...
Biotechnology must remain part of EU-US trade negotiations
Biotech crops are a sticking point in free-trade negotiations between the US and European Union ...
Supreme Court ruling won’t impact agribusiness research of GE foods, law prof argues
The following is an edited excerpt. A University of Iowa law professor says the U.S. Supreme Court has given new ...
Nigeria: GE foods for sale by 2015, minister says
The following is an edited excerpt. The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof Ita Ewa, said at the weekend that ...
Maine: Backers of GE labeling unthinkingly buy conspiracy-based arguments
The following is an edited excerpt. That the Maine Legislature has determined that the bottle of canola oil I buy ...
Meet Calestous Juma, Africa’s GE crop ‘optimist’
The following is an edited excerpt. When Calestous Juma was 9 years old, floods inundated his family’s village. Port Victoria ...
Malaysia: Bioengineered crops are agriculture’s green bravura
The following is an edited excerpt. Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt) crops and food have another name. Because they are developed ...
Bad science about GE foods: It reminds me of the antivaccine movement (revisited)
The following is an edited excerpt. I never used to write much about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) before. I still ...
Prime Minister Cameron wants GM crops grown in Britain
The following is an edited excerpt. David Cameron has given the clearest signal yet that the government wants to see ...
Chipotle becomes first US restaurant chain to voluntarily label GE foods
The following is an edited excerpt. The recent decision by Whole Foods Market to label all genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) sold ...
Resistance to biotech is robbing consumers of affordable food
The following is an edited excerpt. When a farmer discovered biotech wheat on a remote field in eastern Oregon in ...
Careless farming could cost us benefits of GM crops
The following is an edited excerpt. Resistance is far from futile. Agricultural pests are evolving immunity to the toxins in ...
The organic hepatitis outbreak: We need organic field testing
A recent outbreak of hepatitis A infections from the consumption of organic frozen berries highlights the problem with the organic ...
GM foods grow up
Critics of transgenic crops often focus on the seemingly unnatural act of adding something new and alien to a plant's ...
GMO pigs study – more junk science
The following is an excerpt. When I saw on Twitter that a ‘major new peer-reviewed study’ was about to reveal ...
“GMOs make pigs sick” paper avoids rigorous analysis
New research claiming GM foods hurt pigs is more fishing expedition than proper science ...
Nature Biotechnology analysis lashes French politicians for feeding anti-biotech fever
In March 2012, the French government issued an emergency ban on a GM strain of corn “to protect the environment." ...
Monsanto wins defense against organic farmers’ lawsuit over seed contamination
Monsanto Co. won another round in a legal battle with U.S. organic growers as an appeals court threw out the ...
Congress “protects” GM crops
The "Monsanto Protect Act" provision passed earlier this year has elicited overstated responses from critics and proponents alike ...
It’s past time for world to embrace biotechnology
The following is an edited excerpt. Convincing Americans about the advantages of biotechnology never has been the main issue. The ...
The calm of the genetically modified storm?
The following is an excerpt. As the world approaches a population of nine billion by 2050, GM crops can play ...
Wheat trading partners react to GM wheat announcement
The following is an excerpt. On May 29, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant and Health Inspection Service announced preliminary ...
Argentina says China approves more GM soy, corn for import
The following is an edited excerpt. Argentina's agriculture minister said on Saturday that China has approved three new strains of ...
Tests so far show commercial wheat seed GM-free, sabotage a real possibility
The following is an excerpt. Monsanto said Wednesday that broad testing of commercial wheat seeds in Oregon and Washington state ...
Massachusetts public hearing set on three GMO labeling bills
The following is an excerpt. A hearing has been scheduled to allow the public to offer testimony on three bills ...
Genetic modification and the fate of sustainable fish farming
Whole Foods's refusal to stock salmon fed with GM yeast may stifle technology that delivers environmental benefits ...
Being Gilles-Eric Seralini: Inside the mind of the anti-GM movement
Anti-GM activists live trapped in their own heads; All they can see and hear are their own slogans and conspiracy ...
