Agriculture Spotlight
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech groups’ master plan substitutes ‘citizen science’ for data in quest to get glyphosate banned
The European Union resisted the lobbying of organic and anti-biotech groups to renew authorization of glyphosate, although only for five ...
French President Macron advocates glyphosate herbicide ban within 3 years
The European Union voted on Monday [Nov. 27] to extend its authorization for the world’s best-selling herbicide for an abbreviated ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO movement perpetuates sexism, food insecurity
An acronym that conjures specters like pesticides, cancer, obesity, the transformation of life forms into intellectual property, and corporate control ...
EU re-approval of glyphosate herbicide dodges farming economic woes—for now
If the European Union eventually phases out all the popular glyphosate herbicide, the loss of farm productivity could cost Europe ...
Dolly the sheep revisited: Early health fears about clones ‘greatly exaggerated’
[L]ast year, Kevin Sinclair, a developmental biologist at the University of Nottingham, published a paper about several clones including Dolly’s four “sisters,” who ...
Spy plants? DARPA working on genetically engineered surveillance sensors
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the think-tank that’s under the U.S. Department of Defense, recently announced that it’s ...
Food fight: GMO labeling disagreements behind food lobby shakeup?
Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, rocked food circles in late October with the news that it was leaving the ...
EU renews glyphosate herbicide license for 5 years, ending ‘heated debate’
EU countries approved on Monday [Nov. 27] the use of weed-killer glyphosate for the next five years after a heated ...
Video: Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on ‘troubling trend’ of misleading food labels
There’s been a lot of talk about the mandatory GMO disclosure law passed by the US Congress in 2016. The ...
Food, vaccines and medicine: How plant scientists are changing the world
[Editor's note: Erica Hawkins is a PhD student at the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia studying medicinal plant ...
French scientist calls for inquiry into IARC’s ‘misbehavior’ on glyphosate cancer study
Following revelations that IARC withheld data showing the herbicide glyphosate does not cause cancer, French molecular geneticist Marcel Kuntz calls ...
Viewpoint: GMO crops are future of African farming—if anti-biotech activists get out of the way
[I]nfluenced by European environmentalists, most African countries forbid the growing of genetically modified crops. This is a pity, because unless ...
Anti-biotechnology fake news: ‘Natural News’ claims RNAi used to ‘eliminate black people’
Anti-GMO campaigners are promoting a new conspiracy theory conflating the pioneering genetics technology of RNAi with anti-vaxxer myths and a ...
Mexico revokes Monsanto permit to develop GMO soybean seeds in 7 states
Agriculture sanitation authority Senasica has revoked a permit held by Monsanto to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven Mexican states ...
Argentina authorizes new herbicide-resistant GMO soybean seeds
Argentina authorized on Friday [Nov. 24] the use of genetically modified soybean seeds resistant to herbicides other than glyphosate, as ...
France to vote against 5-year EU renewal of glyphosate herbicide
France will vote against a five-year extension of the license for weed-killer glyphosate that the European Commission will propose on ...
Myth busting: Are natural pesticides really safer than synthetic ones?
Both organic and conventional farmers use pesticides, but these chemicals are rampant in nature and many natural ones are more ...
Farmers’ choice: GMOs help make Thanksgiving food abundant and affordable
Farmers utilizing choices in seed technology, such as GMOs, allow us to have an abundance of food choices at affordable ...
African Seed Trade Association announces support for GMOs
A continental seed body on Friday [Nov. 17] supported the coexistence of genetically modified (GMO) seeds and conventional ones. The ...
New disease-resistant GMO soybean variety could protect crop from ‘sudden death syndrome’
An Iowa State University agronomist is charting mechanisms – gene by gene – that could lead to soybean varieties resistant ...
Bee friendly insecticides? Scientists unlock genetic key to kill crop pests, sparing beneficial insects
Researchers at Michigan State University’s entomology department have unlocked a key to maintain the insecticide’s effectiveness in eliminating pests without ...
Golden Potatoes: Vitamin-A fortified GMO variety could help tackle childhood blindness in Africa
We've been praising the development of Golden Rice, genetically engineered to contain the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene, for years. Since vitamin ...
Promising GMO and gene-edited wheat varieties hindered by costly regulations, consumer concerns
“Everything that my lab has produced is down in the basement.” That is how Peggy G. Lemaux, Ph.D., described the ...
Glyphosate, other herbicides may contribute to antibiotic resistance, study finds
New Zealand researchers have found the active ingredients in commonly-used weed killers can cause bacteria to be less susceptible to ...
Uganda approves open field trials for disease-resistant GMO bananas, paving way for 2021 release
Researchers at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) in Kawanda [Uganda] have said they are ready to go for open- ...
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 ...