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.
Gene drives: How do we foster innovation without damaging ecosystems?
.... [G]ene drive technology has fundamentally added the ability of humans to modify wild organisms, not only domesticated organisms. With ...
Plants are conscious? Some evidence says yes, but not all experts are convinced
Plants are conscious, according to LINV director Stefano Mancuso, an arboriculture professor at the University of Florence. Mancuso’s case for ...
Viewpoint: Court-enforced dicamba weedkiller ban is about eliminating GMOs, not protecting farmers
....[T]he U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit .... banned the use of Dicamba weed control products at the ...
Mexico pledges to ban glyphosate weedkiller by 2024 to ‘protect human health and the environment’
“Given the scientific evidence of glyphosate toxicity, demonstrating the impacts on human health and the environment, the Secretariat of Environment ...
How biotech-wary regenerative agriculture movement can benefit from CRISPR gene editing
The link between biotech and conventional farming will no doubt cause many regenerative agriculture purists to balk at the idea ...
Consumer pesticide fears spur chemical giant Syngenta to develop more eco-friendly farm technologies
Conventional pesticide makers including Syngenta and Bayer AG have been under pressure in recent years over their products’ impact on ...
China approves imports of 125 GMO crops, animal drugs following strict safety reviews
The five corn and three soybean species have characteristics such as resistance to pests and weed killers. They will only ...
France’s proposed 2022 glyphosate weedkiller ban would harm conservation agriculture, USDA says
The French government’s agricultural research institute found that banning glyphosate will significantly increase production costs for French farmers practicing no-till ...
GMO cotton that makes its own colors could eliminate need for chemical textile dyes
[Colored cotton plants] are the product of CSIRO plant breeders dedicated to producing better, sustainable natural fibers that will hopefully ...
Court order blocking California glyphosate cancer label could spark more legal challenges to Prop. 65
On June 22, 2020, U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb (Eastern District of California) granted summary judgment in favor of ...
Infographic: GMO tomatoes? There’s no such thing. Here are the only biotech crops grown in the US
Are you paying more for “non-GMO pasta?” Then you’re not using your noodle. What are the facts? There are only ...
As temperatures rise, gene editing helps climate proof the global food supply
“The largest single global change that threatens food security is high temperature,” said Donald Ort, a professor of plant biology ...
We depend on bees for 1/3 of our food? Pesticides threaten bees? Farmer challenges pollinator myths
.... [W]ithout [bee] pollination efforts, the world would still have plenty of food .... The vegetables we eat don’t require ...
Canadian glyphosate-cancer lawsuits against Bayer may proceed regardless of US settlement
.... [T]he agreements, between Bayer and numerous law firms in America, don’t apply to potential class action lawsuits in Canada, ...
Farm to Fork tempest: EU defends plan to make 25 percent of agriculture organic, ignoring farmer skepticism
[Editor's note: EU farmers are skeptical of a new government initiative to make 25 percent of Europe's farmland organic by ...
$10.9 billion Monsanto Roundup settlement does not automatically shield Bayer from ‘flood’ of new glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
[Bayer] on [June 24] agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to end the litigation by U.S. Roundup users ...
Legal fight over Bayer’s drift-prone dicamba weedkiller ends in $400 million settlement
Bayer will pay up to $400 million to resolve the multi-district litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the ...
India has access to yield-boosting GMO crops, so why aren’t farmers allowed to grow them?
[India's] Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee .... had first approved GM food crop Bt brinjal in 2009 after a nine-year-long trial ...
Gene editing could help safeguard $400 million worth of wheat during coldest winter months
Up to $400 million worth of grain is lost during winter in Western Australia each year when cold conditions freeze ...
Despite $10.9 billion US glyphosate-cancer settlement, Australia officially maintains weedkiller ‘perfectly safe’
The pesticides giant Bayer agreed .... to pay up to US$10.9bn (A$15.8bn) to settle about 95,000 cases claiming [the glyphosate-based ...
Viewpoint: Court order blocking California glyphosate cancer label a huge win against ‘junk science’
Federal Judge William Shubb ruled that due to insufficient evidence, California cannot require glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup to be labeled as ...
Disease-fighting GMO mosquitoes are coming. Was EPA too quick to approve them?
[In May], the US Environmental Protection Agency approved the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. Under a 2-year Experimental Use Permit, ...
Insect-resistant GMO corn nutritionally equivalent to conventional counterpart, field study shows
DP23211 maize was genetically modified (GM) to express .... protein for control of corn rootworm. DP23211 maize also expresses ...
Viewpoint: Bayer caved to anti-science trial lawyers by settling glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
Bayer, the German pesticide and seed company, has agreed to establish a $10 billion fund that aims to resolve current ...
GMO rice in development could be the next revolutionary treatment for high blood pressure
In the future, taking your blood pressure medication could be as simple as eating a spoonful of rice. This “treatment” ...
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 ...
