Daily Food & Agriculture Digest
Uganda: Successful field trial of blight-resistant GMO potato
In Uganda, about 300,000 smallholder households grow potatoes for their subsistence living and for income. Loss due to late blight ...
Podcast: ‘Consumers don’t have anything to fear’ about pesticide residue, says food scientist
"The research that I've done about the pesticide residues on foods would suggest that, by and large, consumers really don't ...
‘Monsanto gas mask man’ photos distort GMO debate and disrespect farmers
[Editor's note: Terrance Bradshaw is a research associate at the University of Vermont and director of the university's Apple and Grape ...
How genetic engineering could boost biofuel production in Africa and Latin America
Bioenergy production techniques that are already available could be used to supply up to 30 percent of the world’s energy ...
Americans’ worries about GMOs–and indifference to debate–increasing, polls show
Polls examined here document a general, though not monotonic, decline in confidence that the federal government can ensure the safety ...
‘All natural fetish’ fuels ‘counter-rationalist mindset’ on GMOs in Vermont
Immersed as we are in these exquisite pastoral gifts, Vermonters tend to forget that Mother Nature might be lovely, but ...
Crop biodiversity: ‘Under appreciated’ weapon in fight to end hunger
[Editor’s note: Mohamed Bakarr is Lead Environmental Specialist at the Global Environment Facility. Kevin Pixley is the Director of the ...
Syngenta faces 7,000 Kansas farmers in court over claim of losses due to premature release of GM corn
Farmers have to deal with threats to their crops from nature all the time. Thousands of Kansans, though, argue that ...
Horizon ‘organic’ milk under fire for adding factory-produced algae oil to boost nutrition
Inside a South Carolina factory, in industrial vats that stand five stories high, batches of algae are carefully tended, kept ...
5 ‘game changer’ technologies improving modern agriculture
1. GPS technology GPS may be the biggest game changer in agriculture. While things like autosteer have made driving the ...
Indian agriculture expert: Don’t let GM mustard go the way of GMO eggplant
[Editor’s note: K.K. Narayanan is an agriculture expert and founder of Metahelix Life Sciences.] Seven-and-a-half years ago, BT Brinjal [eggplant], ...
How genetic engineering helped reduce cotton’s environmental footprint
Cotton’s environmental footprint is much less noticeable today than was the case in the early 1960s, thanks largely to science ...
GMO ‘agvocates’ should stop ‘mud slinging’ about organics
[Editor’s note: Terrance Bradshaw is a research associate at the University of Vermont and director of the university’s Apple and Grape ...
Can plant seeds ‘decide’ when to germinate?
Botanical orthodoxy holds that plant germination is a purely mechanistic process, driven entirely by external stimuli. The plant seed itself ...
Texas corn farmer: GMOs and glyphosate are ‘so much less risky for me and for the public’
GMO in your food is hugely controversial with Americans. … For guidance, I'm relying on this 600-page, landmark report from ...
Ag Secretary Perdue: Mandatory GMO labels ‘will probably’ be electronic QR codes
Upcoming labeling rules for foods made with genetically modified organisms will likely have an electronic component such as a QR ...
Fake news alert: Melania Trump did not ban Monsanto products, GMOs from White House
CLAIM: First Lady Melania Trump banned all Monsanto products from the White House after reading about the dangers of genetically modified ...
Genetic tweaks could boost yields of pigeon peas, important source of protein in developing world
Researchers have identified key genes associated with flowering time in the pigeon pea, a finding that could lead to more ...
Can EPA ‘restore science and common sense’ to neonicotinoid insecticide regulations?
[A] federal district court judge has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to consult with the FWS before approving ...
Organic food imports plagued by ‘corruption, bribery and falsified documents’
Roughly 40% of all organic food sold in America tests positive for prohibited pesticides, according to two USDA studies. And, ...
Can the FDA convince public that GMOs are safe to eat, good for environment?
The Food and Drug Administration has a tough job ahead of it, a job that the food and agriculture sectors ...
Video: Genetically modified pollinating cyborg dragonfly drone takes flight
[Editor's note: As has been previously reported, these dragonflies could be used for artificial pollination.] A new experiment bypasses the ...
Did EPA and Monsanto conspire to downplay potential danger of glyphosate before EU review?
The European Food Safety Authority dismissed a study linking a Monsanto weedkiller to cancer after counsel from a US Environmental ...
Epigenetically modified cotton could lead to hardier varieties without altering genes
With prices down and weather patterns unpredictable, these are tough times for America’s cotton farmers, but new research led by ...
What’s driving the wave of agrichemical company mergers?
After a decade without any big deals, since 2015 three mega-mergers, collectively worth around $240bn, have been proposed. When they ...
US beekeepers report lowest overwinter losses since survey began in 2006
Beekeepers across the United States lost 33 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2016 to ...
Fake food news: Non-GMO Project sets standard for misleading consumers
[Editor's note: Kavin Senapathy is a freelance writer and co-author of The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari’s Glass House.] As a ...