Daily Food & Ag Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of agricultural and food issues, including the GMO debate, conventional and organic farming, regulations, new breeding technologies and sustainability. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Viewpoint: The libertarian case for getting the government out of the business of regulating food choices
Governments worldwide are moving from nudging people toward healthier diets to dictating them, and that's a mistake, as Reason's Jeffrey ...
‘Weird food’? Testicle- and brain-eating, supplement-gulping MAHA health food enthusiasts defend their ‘natural’ diets
Raw buffalo brains, bull testicles and roadkill are on the menu for a growing community of diet contrarians who insist ...
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine obsession and fear of MAHA derailed bird flu containment plan
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine views helped push the Agriculture Department to shelve its plan for vaccinating poultry against avian ...
As Europe inches forward in its embrace of gene-edited crops, hopes abound that opposition to GMOs might fade
Europe's recent deal to loosen rules on gene-edited crops could be the first crack in the continent's decades-long resistance to ...
Viewpoint: Why taxes, regulations, and scare tactics won’t convert people into eating healthier
Decades of gentle nudging haven’t slowed the global obesity epidemic, so governments are getting pushier — slapping warning labels on ...
Viewpoint: Latest attack on renewable energy and farmers, new USDA rules could put solar grants out of reach for small producers
Farmers hoping to tap the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) must now build their solar ...
‘Blatant slap in the face’: MAHA activists turn on RFK Jr. and Trump administration
A group of “Make America Healthy Again” activists, including former members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 presidential campaign, says ...
MAHA moms divided over RFK Jr.’s food‑safety efforts, as recall alerts grow and outbreaks spread
The “crunchy moms” who helped power Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement are splintering, as a year ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bureaucratic and economic obstacles’ to agricultural biotechnology: Europe creeps into the 21st century, but blocks remain
Genetically modified crops won’t single-handedly rescue harvests from worsening droughts, but Europe’s rulebook is making sure they barely get the ...
Should we be afraid of our food?
America's food-safety system hasn't kept pace with an increasingly industrial, globe-spanning food supply, and recent staffing and budget cuts are ...
Tearful onions? CRISPR has a solution for that
Chopping onions may one day be a dry-eyed affair. Researchers at Japan’s Chiba University and food company House Foods have ...
GAHA: The corporate-created “healthier America” movement challenging what it claims is MAHA misinformation about modern farming, chemicals, and food
Some of America’s biggest food and farm interests have decided the best way to answer the Make America Healthy Again ...
RFK Jr.’s plan to curb America’s appetite for ultra-processed foods and artificial dyes blocked by the White House
RFK Jr.’s push to rein in ultraprocessed foods and artificial dyes has hit its biggest roadblock yet: the White House ...
Is organic farming really more sustainable? 100 recent studies say ‘no’
Organic produce may wear a green halo, but it doesn’t earn a clear climate advantage. Organic and conventional farming come ...
No, GMO foods do not “damage genes, natural disposition and hormones, or decrease physical health and intelligence”
Social media posts spreading in Indonesia claim that genetically modified food can rewrite your DNA, and the science says otherwise ...
Non-browning CRISPR gene-edited bananas move one step closer to British markets
Bananas that stay yellow long after their peers have turned to mush are edging closer to British supermarket shelves. A ...
Here are all the ways CRISPR gene editing is transforming Africa’s staple crops—and there’s a lot more innovation to come
CRISPR gene editing is already reshaping Africa’s most important food crops, from disease-resistant bananas to less toxic cassava, and a ...
Social media influencers are driving food misinformation across Europe
Scroll long enough and someone will promise that a supplement, superfood or detox tea can fix whatever ails you. Those ...
No, organic eggs are not more nutritious or necessarily healthier than regular eggs. They are far more expensive.
Organic eggs cost considerably more than conventional ones, but that premium mostly pays for how the hens are raised, not ...
Anti-GMO activists in Pakistan rev up their campaign of dire warnings
Pakistan is weighing whether to commercialize genetically modified maize, and critics of the technology are sounding the alarm, warning of ...
There has been a slew of recent reports of food recalls and foodborne outbreaks. Do we face an escalating problem?
Egg recalls, salmonella-linked jalapeños and a spike in cyclospora cases have dominated headlines this year, but the U.S. food-safety system ...
Viewpoint: America’s food-safety system is being methodically dismantled by the Trump administration.
America's food-safety infrastructure is being quietly hollowed out even as outbreaks grow more complex and harder to trace, journalist Eric ...
Viewpoint: Is corporate embrace of regenerative agriculture greenwashing?
Major food companies are racing to tout “regenerative agriculture,” but the term has no legal definition — and that vagueness ...
Newly approved GMO chestnut trees planted across from the White House are stirring debate
Two genetically engineered American chestnut trees planted near the White House this spring have reignited a decades-old fight over how ...
CRISPR fine-tuning unlocks vitamin C-rich potatoes without yield loss
Potato is a central pillar of global food security, yet its highly heterozygous, tetraploid genome has long frustrated conventional breeding ...
‘Glyphosate is not carcinogenic’: Independent EU chemical oversight agency reaffirms—for the 3rd time in 9 years—that the herbicide is safe-as-used
The European Chemicals Agency's Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) has reaffirmed, for the third time in nine years, that glyphosate does ...
Bayer urges court to approve $7.25 billion Monsanto Roundup settlement that could limit its future liabilities
Bayer is asking a Missouri court to grant final approval to a $7.25 billion settlement covering roughly 65,000 lawsuits claiming ...
