Daily Food & Agriculture 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.
Bayer settles estimated 95,000 glyphosate weedkiller-cancer lawsuits with 25 firms for more than $10 billion, admits no wrongdoing
Bayer, the world's largest seed and pesticide maker, has agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of ...
$8-10 billion settlement in thousands of Bayer glyphosate lawsuits ‘imminent’
Biotech giant Bayer is expected to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer the week of June ...
Bayer, BASF, Corteva expected to fight court-imposed ban on dicamba weedkillers
Dicamba has been the subject of considerable outrage since the release of dicamba-resistant seeds in 2016; the herbicide has a ...
China approves imports of two GMO soy varieties, green lighting production in Argentina
China has approved the import of two new genetically modified (GM) soybean varieties, including one developed by local firm Beijing ...
GMO aspen trees could provide sustainable source of biofuel, study shows
Hybrid aspen, a crossing between European and American aspen, is one of Sweden’s most productive tree species which grows better ...
COVID-19 disrupts Africa’s seed supply, threatening food security
The global pandemic has made it difficult for some African seed companies to produce and import sufficient quantities of quality ...
GMO skeptics are also likely to reject nano food technologies that could enhance flavor and nutrition, survey shows
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) have ...
Federal court backs EPA order allowing farmers to use banned dicamba weedkillers until July 31
EPA has defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to use three vacated dicamba herbicides -- XtendiMax, FeXapan and ...
California can’t force Bayer to put Prop. 65 cancer warning on Roundup glyphosate weedkiller, judge rules
A federal judge in Sacramento on [June 22] ruled for Bayer and blocked the state from requiring that any company ...
Nigerian scientists say ‘smart’ agriculture can help mitigate climate change
Promoting smart agriculture is one step nations can take to help mitigate the negative effects of farming on the climate, ...
Plaintiffs attorneys in glyphosate-cancer suit plead guilty to $200 million extortion plot
According to the [Virginia] Department of Justice, 38-year-old Timothy Litzenburg, of Charlottesville, and 41-year-old Daniel Kincheloe, of Glen Allen, each ...
Waterhemp weed uses genetic ‘tricks’ to outsmart herbicides, threatening farmers’ crop yields
The weed that represents the biggest threat to Midwestern corn and soybean production, waterhemp, has outsmarted almost every kind of ...
Ancient farmers helped build the Amazon’s rich biodiversity, archaeologists find
Farmers helped build the Amazon's rich biodiversity by maintaining soil health with sustainable growing practices, an international team of scientists ...
European Greens rebuff pro-CRISPR party faction, allege gene-edited crops ‘doomed to fail’
Martin Häusling, spokesman for agricultural policy of the Greens / EFA in the European Parliament, and Harald Ebner, spokesman for ...
African farmers yearn for biotechnology in the face of climate change
Southern Africa is on the receiving end of the devastating impact of climate change, driving millions into hunger. A record ...
UK environment secretary backs relaxed CRISPR crop rules, but says GMO restrictions won’t change
Addressing MPs via video call, [UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice] said that “gene ...
Genetic engineering could tackle crop growth barriers that promote hunger in developing nations
Using potatoes and cassava plants, along with other species such as tomato, rice, and cotton as models, [researchers have] identified ...
Viewpoint: Trump Administration should cut funding to WHO’s IARC cancer agency
The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer] IARC is supposed to be a scientific program that classifies ...
Oxitec wins approval to release GMO mosquitoes in US
Oxitec has received state and federal approval to release genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in a pilot project planned for the ...
Conspiracy debunked: Bill Gates, Tyson Foods aren’t using COVID to boost lab-grown meat sales
“Do you wonder why the media wants you panicked about the food supply and why farms are slaughtering and aborting ...
As rising oceans encroach on arable land, gene editing, floating farms may help feed the world
A soil biologist and co-director of the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food, [Duncan] Cameron had long known that ...
Insect-resistant GMO crops make key contributions to fighting hunger, US State Department reports
Farmers around the world are using advances in agricultural science to increase crop yields, reduce the need for pesticides and ...
‘No distinguishable difference’ between sugar from GMO and non-GMO sugarcane, study confirms
The goal of this manuscript is to present the results of studies with three genetically modified (GM) sugarcane varieties and ...
Indian environmental scientist blasts anti-GMO celebrity Vandana Shiva for ‘baseless’ assault on biotech crops
A reader curious about celebrities’ role in the radical environmental movement emailed me recently. He wondered if .... their claims ...
African experts urge a ‘special focus’ on agriculture in post COVID recovery
African experts are urging governments across the continent to give a “special focus” to agriculture in the post-COVID-19 recovery era ...
EPA defends decision allowing farmers to use banned dicamba herbicides until July 31
EPA defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to use three vacated dicamba herbicides -- XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia ...
Viewpoint: Mexico’s glyphosate weedkiller import restrictions could harm farmers and consumers alike
In November, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources denied the importation of a thousand tons of glyphosate, the basic ...
GMO goats can produce ‘blockbuster’ cancer drug in their milk, which could slash prices for patients
Goats can be genetically modified to produce a common cancer drug in their milk, which could slash its production costs ...
