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.
The ignorance of Whole Foods
Henry Miller argues that the folks running Whole Foods are misguided at best when it comes to biotech ...
Navigating the agricultural biotech minefield: When an MIT study is not an MIT study
Thanks to a credulous Reuters report, a shoddy piece of pseudoscience is making the rounds as “an MIT study” linking ...
Transgenics: A new breed of crops
The following is an edited excerpt. A whole new generation of GM crops is now making their way from laboratory ...
Nature’s must-read issue on genetically modified organisms
Keith Kloor dissects and summarizes Nature magazine's special issue on genetically modified organisms ...
5 points in favor of intellectual property for agricultural biotechnology
The following is an excerpt. CropLife International has identified the top five facts everyone should know about the importance of ...
Biotech crops do help poor farmers
The following is an excerpt. According to a just-released economic analysis by U.K.-based PG Economics of the impacts of genetic ...
London School of Economics enters biotech crop discussion
The following is an excerpt. The prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and ...
Tanzania: Biotechnology to increase cotton production
The following is an excerpt. Recently, the Ministry of State in the Vice-President's Office (Environment) convened a meeting for stakeholders ...
Why scientists and science advocates shouldn’t fight the GM-labeling movement
Ramez Naam, a GLP contributor, makes the argument that -- despite the scientific evidence for the safety of genetically modified ...
A forward-looking Kenya can lead the movement for global food sufficiency
The following is an excerpt. A newly-elected government provides a country with a rare opportunity for a fresh start, and ...
Will genetically engineered food feed a hungry world?
The following is an excerpt. Dick Tracy was right. So was Captain James T. Kirk and Maxwell Smart. Through their ...
Time to call out the anti-GMO conspiracy theory
The following is an excerpt. I think the controversy over GMOs represents one of the greatest science communications failures of ...
The promise, the reality, and the future of GM crops
A special issue of Nature News separates fact from fiction when it comes to GMOs ...
Food labeling 101: GMO, organic, and other common grocery labels decoded
The following is an excerpt. Navigating the food labels at the grocery store these days can feel like reading through ...
Keith Kloor stumbles into nest of questionable studies and reporting on GMOs
The following is an excerpt. This morning, the Discover blogger Keith Kloor filed a noisy objection to a Reuters story on a questionable paper alleging harmful effects from Roundup, the trade ...
Condemning Monsanto with bad science is dumb
The following is an excerpt. Did you see the latest indictment of Monsanto making the rounds? It's a "peer-reviewed" paper ...
Media mangles latest biotech innovation—hornless cows
Despite exaggerated claims from various media outlets over the weekend, the innovations that led to the hornless dairy cow are ...
Peru says no to GMO
The following is an excerpt. Peru was the cradle of the Inca Empire, and today it’s home to many crops indigenous ...
EU GMO policy paradox: Farmers can’t plant GM corn, but it can be imported
The following is an excerpt. Europe needs to embrace genetically engineered crops or face economic decline, according to a group ...
GMO food labeling drive heats up
The following is an excerpt. New efforts to force labelling of foods made with genetically modified crops, including a bill introduced by ...
UK: The government’s backing of GM foods is short-sighted and wrong
The following is an excerpt. The call to relax the rules on GM crops from Sir Mark Walport, government chief ...
Farmers’ battles with weeds are aided, not hurt, by biotech
The following is an excerpt. When the biotechnology antagonists try to stoke fear by warning about “superweeds,” they make these ...
Video: Interview with CEO of AquaBounty
The following is an excerpt. Karl Haro von Mogel from Biology Fortified interviewed Ron Stonish, President and CEO of AquaBounty at the 2013 ...
Wary development NGOs should reconsider biotechnology
The world of science, technology and engineering might seem, for good reason, miles away from the day-to-day work of most ...
Federal GMO labeling bill introduced to Congress
Federal legislation that would require food labels to identify genetically engineered ingredients was introduced Wednesday ...
How GMOs affect the world, and Kansas State
A student-run newspaper features a two-part series about genetically modified crops, nutrition, and Monsanto's ties to Kansas State University ...
When hysteria about GMOs takes root
The following is an edited excerpt. A homeopath (which means that she’s reality-challenged to begin with), [Heidi Stevenson has] produced ...
