Agriculture Spotlight
Neonicotinoid insecticide has ‘no adverse effects’ on honeybee colony health, meta-analysis finds
A quantitative weight of evidence (QWoE) methodology was used to assess higher-tier studies on the effects of imidacloprid (IMI) on ...
Viewpoint: FDA should crack down on food safety misinformation
[Editor's note: Val Giddings is a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The following is part of a letter ...
Wheat gene discovery could fend off deadly stem rust pathogen threatening global food security
University of California, Davis, researchers have identified a gene that enables resistance to a new devastating strain of stem rust, ...
Ecuador activist group plans nationwide strike to protest country’s loosening of GMO restrictions
Burning soy seeds lit up the city streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, last May as dozens of farmers, activists and indigenous ...
Would switching to 100% organic farming help the environment? ‘Absolutely not’
Should the world’s farms go 100 percent organic to protect the environment? Absolutely not. One huge problem is that organic ...
Podcast: Gene editing could make farm animals happier and healthier
Just one genetically modified animal has been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world. A fast growing species of ...
Designer fruit is the future: Genetic engineering adds ‘tangible benefits’ for consumers
Consumers have shown a great deal of resistance to GMO food over the years, but the Golden Arctic apple, which ...
Viewpoint: FDA regulations ‘a disaster’ for genetically modified animal research
The Trump Administration and Congress should rein in the FDA's regulatory overreach on genetically engineered animals, which is stifling important ...
USDA expects quick approval for genetically engineered virus to combat citrus greening disease in Florida
The Agriculture Department is expected to allow Florida citrus growers to start using a genetically engineered virus to protect trees ...
Complex EU system leads to undemocratic GMO approval process
[Editor's note: Monika Mühlböck is a professor at the Department of Economic Sociology at the University of Vienna. Jale Tosun is ...
Viewpoint: Organic food fight over hydroponics about money—and that’s how farming should be
Sustainable farming can’t actually be sustainable if farmers can’t make money doing it. So there’s a certain irony in the organic ...
Fungicides may be to blame for US bumblebee declines, study finds
When a Cornell-led team of scientists analyzed two dozen environmental factors to understand bumblebee population declines and range contractions, they ...
How the tomato lost its flavor––and the way biotech could bring it back
Supermarket tomatoes have a sorry reputation for looking great but tasting like cardboard. Short of growing only heirloom tomatoes, the ...
South Australia close to passing bill to extend GMO crop ban to 2025
South Australia is set to extend its controversial ban on the growing of genetically-modified crops until 2025 after a bill ...
Claims that glyphosate herbicide causes chronic diseases ‘not supported by scientific evidence’
[Editor's note: Robin Mesnage was a coauthor of the retracted study led by anti-GMO activist scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini (GLP profile here) ...
CRISPR could revolutionize livestock breeding—if people will eat gene-edited animals
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), the last site-specific endonuclease to be developed, is an RNA- guided endonuclease, easy ...
Disease-resistant GMO bananas could save $12 billion Cavendish global industry
A billion dollar banana industry at risk of a deadly disease could be saved by a scientific breakthrough from a ...
Nigeria rejects $10 million worth of unapproved GMO corn imported from Argentina
Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) says it has, in conjunction with the Customs Service, ordered that the genetically modified ...
Viewpoint: Blame activist social media for Europe’s anti-science crusade against glyphosate
[Editor's note: Richard Hackett is an Agronomist based in North County Dublin, Ireland.] [A]ccess to abundant food has led to complacency ...
What’s a ‘GMO’ food?
[W]hat exactly is a GMO? The initialism stands for "genetically modified organism," but it's a term lacking scientific precision. Moreover, ...
Nanotechnology might help farmers fight climate change, pests and disease–and boost yields
Researchers are exploring the impact of using nanoscale nutrients––including copper––on eggplants and other crops. While early results have shown substantial ...
Genes associated with improved photosynthesis could double crop yields, suck more CO2 out of atmosphere
Scientists from Wageningen University & Research have found natural genetic variation for photosynthesis in plants and are unravelling it to ...
Monsanto, farmers groups sue California claiming glyphosate cancer warning would be ‘false speech’
Monsanto Co and U.S. farm groups sued California on Wednesday [Nov. 15] to stop the state from requiring cancer warnings ...
Video: Geneticist Nina Fedoroff on what to do when scientists and citizens disagree about GMOs
At the 2017 D.W. Brooks Lecture and Award held on Nov. 7 in the Georgia Center’s Mahler Auditorium, molecular biologist ...
GMO stigma: The challenge of growing virus-resistant papaya in Hawaii
[Michael] Kamiya is a strong supporter of agricultural technology, which he credits for saving his family’s farm. He has childhood ...
Crop armor: Genetic modification to protect plants from drought, climate change
An army of scientists is hard at work to understand how plants sense, defend and adapt to harsh environments. ...
What’s next in the long, heated battle over bees and neonicotinoid insecticides?
[S]tudies showing real-world evidence of harm from pesticides in the field have been mounting — and environmental organizations have demanded ...
