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.
Trust the experts: Scientific scrutiny, government oversight show GMOs ‘at least as safe’ as traditional foods
[Editor's note: David Tribe is a senior lecturer in food biotechnology and microbiology, agriculture and food systems, at the University ...
With pesticide resistance rising, crop scientists look to CRISPR, bacteria for solutions
Resistance to conventional pesticides — among insects, weeds or microbial pathogens — is common on farms worldwide. CropLife International, an ...
Australian election results could spell bad news for GMO farmers
Labor's comprehensive victory at the [March 2017] WA [Western Australia] election raises questions about the future status of plant biotechnology ...
Study challenges belief that milkweed is sole cause of monarch butterfly declines
Steep declines in the number of monarch butterflies reaching their wintering grounds in Mexico are not fully explained by fewer ...
Tanzania’s biosafety regulations force researchers to burn harvest from GMO corn field trial despite food shortages
In keeping with strict biosafety regulations, all the GM maize material is burned once the harvest data is collected. The ...
EPA/Monsanto collusion alleged in lawsuit challenging safety of Roundup herbicide
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of glyphosate's cancer risk here and here. Read the American Council on Science and Health's ...
Challenging Danny Hakim’s New York Times claim that Monsanto conspired to cover up glyphosate dangers
[Editor's note: Alex Berezow is a microbiologist and a senior fellow of biomedical science at the American Council on Science ...
To boost crop yields, stress tolerance one biotech startup turns to epigenetics
The news that’s arrived is that TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, announced it has completed an ...
To boost crop yields and stress tolerance, one biotech startup turns to epigenetics
The news that’s arrived is that TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, announced it has completed an ...
Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen pesticide-in-foods list confuses risk and hazard
It's that time of the year when the Environmental Working Group produces its "Dirty Dozen List" - foods they believe ...
Facing climate change, plant breeders use genetics, robotics to develop crops ‘that can adapt to it all’
Variable weather is creating extreme challenges for crop breeding in California. How do you develop crops that will thrive under ...
Corn genetically engineered to neutralize toxic mold would be boon for health of poor women in Africa
It’s a silent killer lurking in common foods. A carcinogenic toxin made by [mold] kills thousands around the world and ...
Toxin, glyphosate, carcinogen: Story behind 3 most misused words in conventional vs. organic farming debate
[Editor's note: Marthélize Tredoux is a former scientist and co-owner and editor at Incogvino, a website that covers wine. By day, ...
‘Environmental DNA’ tests could aid in management of commercial, endangered fish
Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is at the center of a brand new kind of fish and wildlife biology, and it ...
Online genetic database helps breeders make healthier cattle
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Clay Center, Nebraska, have sequenced the whole genomes of a panel of 96 bulls—representing ...
Sensors developed for national security used to monitor plant health, improve breeding
Agriculture consumes about 80 percent of all U.S. water. Making fertilizers uses 1 to 2 percent of all the world’s ...
Plants may experience consciousness — but in a different way than humans
Like us, plants possess receptors, microtubules and sophisticated intercellular systems that likely facilitate a degree of spatio-temporal consciousness. Instead of ...
As China overtakes US in government funding for agricultural research, biotech firms fill the gap
The world’s largest farm exporter, the U.S., is also a global leader in agricultural innovation. Consider GMO crops grown on ...
Monsanto to conduct field trial of GM cotton resistant to multiple insects in Australia
Biotechnology giant Monsanto will trial GM cotton in the Ord Irrigation Scheme [farming area in Western Australia] this year [2017], ...
Is organic farming ‘holy grail’ to environmental, food scarcity problems? Study says no
Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new UBC study published today in ...
Healthy eating: Why doesn’t US government spend more on specialty crop research?
As the country seeks solutions to the obesity epidemic, there’s been plenty of debate about how to get people to ...
Fact check: South African political party misleads about glyphosate’s cancer risk
Calling for a probe into “a possible crime against humanity”, a South African political party wants to halt the use ...
Honey bee defenses could be strengthened through genes linked to stress resilience
A core set of genes involved in the responses of honey bees to multiple diseases caused by viruses and parasites ...
Uganda launches field trial of GMO bananas resistant to wilting disease
This banana has been engineered to resist bacterial xanthomonas wilt (BXW). The gene that conferred resistance is from sweet pepper ...
Quest for higher yields is enemy of biodiversity on farms — both conventional and organic
What kind of agriculture most benefits biodiversity? In recent years, few questions have animated conservationists and land-use scientists more than ...
8 ways farmers around the world are fighting drought
As farmers worldwide experience more frequent drought and erratic rainfall linked to climate change, the race to find and improve ...
Mike Adams, Alex Jones and Joe Mercola: How the web turns quacks into science gurus
Welcome to the vast universe of self-built social media empires devoted to spreading false, misleading, and polarizing science and health ...
