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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Utopian fantasy or realistic tools? Deploying synthetic biology to jump crop yields sustainably
As the climate crisis accelerates, there’s a desperate need to rapidly reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, both by ...
Viewpoint: Fake news about Italy’s 2023 ‘unenforceable’ ban on lab grown meat reignites fact-twisted furor
Italy passed a law banning cultivated or cell-based meat years ago, but posts online suggesting that it has just happened ...
Yield, resilience and profits: Seed technology is put to the test
Dr Godfrey Kgatle, plant pathologist and research coordinator at Grain SA, offers insight into how traditional breeding, hybrids, genetically modified ...
Viewpoint: Despite growing acceptance of gene-edited crops, cloned meat still gives people ‘the ick’
After working with other government departments and conducting a review of the scientific literature, Health Canada had determined that food ...
Viewpoint: San Francisco’s ultra-processed lawsuit: Stupid politics meets dumb science
[On December 2, 2025], San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed what he calls a “first of its kind” lawsuit ...
Will South Korea join the rest of the science world in deregulating genetically engineered crops?
[Korea's] National Assembly [just] passed the “GMO Full Disclosure Act (Food Sanitation Act Amendment).” This reflects progress in transparency, safeguarding ...
Viewpoint: The rosy-eyed view of the changes that could be coming with the EU’s approval of agricultural gene editing
In recent years, there has been a need for the rapid development of new varieties to address the negative constraints ...
Viewpoint: India needs to refine its view of the benefits and limits of crop biotechnology
This year’s Nobel laureates in Economics affirm that the future of growth models will be driven by innovation. This is ...
Most people have no clue how gene edited could tweak crops, but when the benefits are clear, they are receptive
Consumers are far more open to gene-edited foods when the benefits are personal, values-driven and clearly explained, according to recent ...
Activist claims that U.S. crop yields are in decline are mostly propaganda
For years, climate activists have pointed to the threat of declining crop yields as a reason to pass the most ...
Agri-biotechnology innovators turn to living organisms and natural materials to build future-focused food systems
[B]iotechnology companies are turning to living organisms and natural materials for inspiration. ... [U]nibaio extracts chitosan from shell waste and transforms ...
How to future-proof global food security to meet 2050 demands
Food security faces growing challenges due to population growth, resource limitations, economic pressures, and industrialization-induced lifestyle changes. Traditional food systems ...
CRISPR is coming: Europe takes a giant step forward escaping three decades of crop biotechnology denialism
[The European] Council has reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a set of rules that establish a legal framework ...
In case there was any remaining doubt: 7-year long primate study proves no health issues are linked to GMO crops
Genetically modified foods have become increasingly prevalent in daily life, raising concerns about their safety and public acceptance, which in ...
Beautiful and delicious mutants on your plate: The misunderstood world of crop improvement
When most of us hear the word mutation, the images that come to mind are not positive. We think of ...
Viewpoint: Who’s Who of litigation-financed junk scientists publish screed in European pay-for-play journal designed to target safe chemicals and their manufacturers for billion-dollar tort actions
Springer Nature published on November 4, 2025, in Environmental Sciences Europe, "Scientists' warning: we must change paradigm for a revolution in toxicology and ...
Roundup litigation reprieve? U.S. government backs Bayer’s claim that its glyphosate is safe-as-used finding preempts random, conflicting state-by-state ‘failure-to-warn’ claims
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed a brief on Monday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review Monsanto’s federal ...
Protecting pigs and loving bacon made from them—Here’s how we can get the best of both worlds
Cultivated pork is the newest entrant in the effort to rethink meat. For years, plant-based offerings have been mimicking burgers, ...
Viewpoint: Small-scale organic farming’s ‘costly indulgence’—Unlike genetically engineered crops, sustainability myths cannot reduce chemical use and increase yields on less land
The modern food debate is full of comfortable myths. The most persistent is that “organic” is better for you, and ...
Viewpoint: Toxic politics and the culture wars—MIT’s ‘Undark’ caves to the MAHA—RFK, Jr.—predatort lobby
Few issues reveal the corrosion of scientific reasoning in contemporary politics more clearly than the escalating fight over the alleged ...
Global food security in a fast changing climate
The availability, quality, and affordability of food depend on a stable climate and stable socioeconomic factors that affect supply and ...
Europe has voted to ban meaty names like ‘steak’ and ‘burger’ for plant-based ‘beef’. Will the UK be next?
After the failure of several similar bans, efforts to stop meat alternatives using ‘meaty’ names are closer than ever to ...
‘Climate-friendly,’ net-zero beef: Possible or just PR?
Last year, the New York attorney general’s office and the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization, filed lawsuits against JBS ...
Viewpoint: South Korea’s outdated crop gene editing regulations stifles agricultural production
At a policy seminar where Korea’s science community, agriculture sector and government gathered to discuss regulatory reforms for gene editing ...
Viewpoint: TB served in a glass—The legislative rush to legitimize raw milk
Once, pasteurization helped conquer “The White Plague”, saving millions of lives from TB and other diseases. Now, legislators across the ...
From creating healthy menus to eliminating food waste, AI is transforming the link between food and health
Across the food system, AI is being harnessed for good—helping consumers make smarter nutritional choices, waste less food, and even ...
Viewpoint: New Zealand rebuffs science-rejectionist attack on the safe use of glyphosate weedkiller
I agree with the recent decision by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority concerning glyphosate. It states that glyphosate can ...
