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.
Monsanto’s public relations stumbles partly responsible for GMOs bad reputation
... Despite the company’s chequered history, the general public was largely unaware Monsanto…[but t]hat all changed in 1996...when Monsanto attempted ...
Will the public be more accepting of next-generation gene-edited crops than GMOs?
A new generation of crops known as gene-edited rather than genetically modified is coming to the market. Created through new ...
White House releases coordinated summary for all US biotechnology regulation
Editor's Note: The following is a portion of the coordinated summary released by the White House outlining the Coordinated Framework ...
GMO Bt corn contains fewer disease-causing mycotoxins than conventional corn
Editor's Note: This blog by geneticist Anastasia Bodnar evaluate whether claims made by the biotechnology industry that GM foods are free ...
Scotts GMO grass, nearing approval, under fire in Oregon for ‘contamination’ claims
[Scotts Miracle-Gro's unapproved genetically modified] grass has taken root in Oregon...the self-professed grass seed capital of the world with a ...
Water Wars? High tech farming, genetic engineering could derail what seems inevitable
More than a billion people around the world have no reasonable access to fresh water. ...just 0.5% of the Earth’s ...
GMOs, nanotechnology losing ground in India because scientists not engaging public
Most reputed universities abroad have dos and don’ts for researchers on interacting with journalists when their papers are published. But ...
Hawaii state experts challenge anti-GMO myth: Pesticide threats not from farming but homes
The anti-GMO movement has succesfully established this false narrative: Seed companies in Hawaii are using unprecedented quantities of pesticides in ...
Insect resistance to Bt crops and weed resistance to herbicides rose in 2016
Insects and weeds pushed many chemical and genetic crop protection tools to their breaking point. A wealth of confirmed and suspected ...
Pro and anti-GMO activists’ goals for food and environment are not that different
I, too, am concerned about ... my children and grandchildren: will they have clean air and water? ... You’re frustrated by the ...
Kauai council may repeal anti-GMO/anti-pesticide bill ruled invalid by federal court
The County Council will take up a resolution to correct the serious public policy error made with enactment of Bill ...
Anti-GMO ‘Merchants of Doubt’ crusaders: Danny Hakim, Eric Lipton, Carey Gillam
Editor's Note: University of Florida horticulturist Kevin Folta addresses the latest journalist attack on biotechnology and agriculture. In last week's New York ...
Could CRISPR revolution help streamline US, EU regulations of GM crop technology?
Under current US and contemplated EU regulation, when CRISPR is used to modify a handful of nucleotides to knockin or ...
Industry funding of university research complicated, unavoidable
[The New York Times article Scientists Loved and Loathed by an Agrochemical Giant] does present a prima facie case that ...
Recapping 2016: 10 ways anti-GMO activists put ideology ahead of science
When they said we would have to add an extra second to the clocks at the end of 2016, there ...
Biotech industry focuses on CRISPR, new gene breeding techniques to break regulatory logjam
Commodity groups, farm organizations and others considered the summer’s GMO labeling law a prudent compromise for what had become a ...
Will new dicamba and 2,4-d herbicide mixes pose drift threat to Texas wine growers?
As Paul Bonarrigo watched his grapevines dwindle, he was confident that heavy-duty herbicides, probably sprayed on crops by a nearby ...
Environmental groups push stricter pesticide rules, including glyphosate ban, in Hawaii
Hawaii residents concerned about pesticide use by major agriculture companies on the islands are planning a push to strengthen regulation ...
Europe, Canada demonstrate challenges of regulating pesticides
The new Trump Administration is now taking shape, amid bountiful signals that it will not blindly accept or rubberstamp previous ...
Farmers worry over weed control in corn as EPA mulls future of atrazine
Corn is a great rotational crop from an agronomic standpoint, and [atrazine] has been recommended to assist with control of ...
Japan may expand GMO labeling laws, include more foods
Japan is considering expanding the scope of mandatory labeling of ingredients containing genetically modified crops from the current 33 food ...
Millennials favor organic foods with their minds, not their wallets
There are many divides among Americans when it comes to their views and practices about food, but one of the ...
Health Canada’s proposed ban of a neonicotinoid pesticide draws criticism
In November, Health Canada said that a nation-wide ban of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, was necessary because the chemical is ...
If consumers embrace it, gene editing could cut livestock feed costs
If the dairy industry did not have access to artificial insemination today, would it have consumer support to use it? ...
Understanding transgenics: How genetic modification in conventional crop breeding and GMOs differ
“GMOs are a hot topic and very misunderstood by many,” [Bejo Seeds Senior Tomato Breeder Doug Heath] says. “It is ...
EU panel concludes organic food may offer limited health, sustainability advantages
This report reviews existing scientific evidence regarding the impact of organic food on human health from an EU perspective, with ...
Bacteria carried by Varroa mites may be key to unlocking mystery of honey bee deaths
A University of Wisconsin-Stout biology professor and his students may have made an important discovery in the effort to determine ...
