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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If seedless watermelons don’t have seeds, how do we grow more of them?
Although seedless watermelons have existed since 1940, and have been widely available at grocery chains since the 1980s, they continue ...
Here’s how we can overhaul our food and farming systems to grow enough food to meet population and climate change challenges
As consumers, our relationship with food – how we grow, produce and eat it, must change in response to increased ...
Joint Kenya-Uganda-Nigeria GMO research project develops blight-resistant, higher yield potato
Timothy Kipsang, a farmer from Kipkabus in Uasin Gishu County, has been growing potatoes on his farm for more than ...
37% yield increase: Almost all monetary gains from Indian GMO mustard will go to farmers, not to seed companies
Huge gains from biotech cotton commercialized [in India] two decades back notwithstanding, policymaking came to a standstill in terms of ...
China is the world’s top importer of soy and corn. Could dozens of recently-approved GMO varieties help boost production and curb imports?
China has approved dozens of genetically modified corn and soybean seed varieties for planting, in a breakthrough move that could ...
Reishi, chaga, lion’s mane: Is it possible to verify trendy ‘superfood’ mushroom supplement claims?
Recent studies have shown that mushrooms are packed with essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and special compounds that are great for your ...
How China’s GMO rice is making salinated land arable for cotton and other seasonal crops
On the rim of Xinjiang’s desert, in a region where the soil is so salty that most vegetation refuses to ...
Biotechnology timeline: Humans have manipulated genes since the ‘dawn of civilization’
The history of biotechnology shows how humans have been manipulating nature for our benefit for a long time—and how modern ...
Pumpkins against poverty: How this drought-tolerant fruit might prove to be sustainable boon in developing world
Pumpkins are an ideal plant for water insecure regions due to their tolerance of drought. Given their ability to withstand less water and ...
Can Nigeria reach food security without genetically modified crops?
For Nigeria to attain food sufficiency to feed its current population of over 212 million people and reduce its overreliance ...
BBC corrects its misleading educational site hyping the benefits of organic and the alleged environmental problems of GMOs
The BBC has revised misleading and factually inaccurate statements about different farming systems on its exam revision website BBC Bitesize ...
Crop biotechnology: Is misinformation still winning?
The journal GM Crops and Food has begun posting a collection of invited papers on “GM Narratives and Misinformation.” ...
How effective and safe are current-generation pesticides?
it is important to balance risks with the benefits that pesticides provide ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based meats are too expensive for consumers to seriously consider
We need to transform our food systems in the next few decades. In most countries, meat consumption is still growing ...
‘Quantum shift’: UK regulators replacing science-strangling ultra-precautionary crop biotech regulations to accelerate adoption of CRISPR and other precise breeding technologies
A ‘quantum shift’ by the Food Standards Agency in its planned approach to regulating gene edited food and feed products ...
Study: Scientists should use social media to fight advocacy group disinformation about modern agricultural biotechnology
Stakeholders need to be enlightened more about genes and viruses as these are the most misunderstood aspects that might have ...
Viewpoint: How did glyphosate became the target of advocacy groups and tort lawyers — considering no global science organization concludes traces in our food pose cancer risks?
No, Roundup glyphosate sprayed in his garden did not cause Mark McCostlin's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a rare form of cancer), a ...
As climate change devastation escalates across Africa, crop biotechnology innovation offers science-based help
Changing weather patterns including rising temperatures, increasing drought incidences, floods and the proliferation of plant diseases are some of its ...
These beekeepers don’t want you to start your own honeybee hives. Here’s why
The craze for honey bees now presents a genuine ecological challenge. Not just in Slovenia, but around the world ...
6th sense? The mystery of tasting salt is so indecipherable, scientists say we have two separate systems to decode it
We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the ...
Are neonicotinoid seed treatments critical for protecting crops—or unnecessary, with potential to harm bees?
Neonicotinoids, the world’s most popular class of insecticides, have been making headlines for the last decade due to concerns that ...
Tomatoes that are delicious, not too fleshy and yet harvestable? With gene editing, they may be on the way
A supermarket tomato can be a delicate thing, easily squashed. Tomatoes grown for canning are a lot tougher. Even when ...
The good and problematic elements of the ‘Green Revolution’ — and prospects for genetics-driven version 2.0
The Green Revolution led to a significant increase in agricultural productivity. New high-yielding crop varieties, such as dwarf wheat and ...
Only 7 African countries commercially grow genetically engineered crops. Here’s a blueprint to unlock the continent’s enormous farm and food potential
The African continent has been home to genetically modified (GM) crops for more than 26 years, beginning in 1996 when ...
Viewpoint: Is organic food worth higher prices? A Harvard researcher advises on how to sidestep the con, save money and eat healthier
Organic foods, valued at over $75 billion, have long been touted as superior to conventionally grown foods, with some studies ...
Genetically-modified industrial hemp cleared for commercialization in US
A hemp plant genetically engineered to produce lower levels of the cannabinoids THC and cannabichromene (CBC) “may be safely grown ...
China poised for new great leap forward on backs of new generation of biotech crops
A trial planting of genetically modified corn and soybean crops outside lab settings in multiple sites across China is projected ...
