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.
Does it contain GMOs or protect rainforests? App scans food, provides label alternative
A new smartphone app may help concerned consumers bring social and environmental justice to the grocery store by supplying information ...
GM ryegrass for cows that could boost milk production 15% faces opposition in Australia
Daily farmers in Victoria Australia are debating the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) ryegrass as peak representative group, United ...
Survey of European attitudes on GMO milk suggests opposition softening
Public perceptions about genetically modified (GM) food products is shifting from wariness to a more positive attitude as I discovered ...
Producers of 70% of Africa’s food, women farmers shackled by GMO opponents
As a farmer in Ghana, I see the problems in farming every day. Farmers struggle with everything from the unpredictability of ...
Cardboard tasting tomatoes? Cutting edge genetic breeding to the rescue
At Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon’s only land-grant university, Jim Myers is quietly pursuing some of the most exciting vegetable ...
Young food scientists on why they stood up to Food Babe
In late January, a group of students pursuing graduate degrees in food science published an open letter to Vani Hari, ...
GMO seeds boost corn yields more than 40%
Throughout human history, as the world's population has grown, so, too, has the amount of arable land converted into farmland ...
Is there gap in federal regulation of newer GMOs?
Critics say a loophole in federal regulations for genetically engineered crops will backfire against biotech companies. Under current rules, USDA ...
Longshot federal GMO labeling bill reintroduced: ‘GM crops force farmers to buy more pesticides’
Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut along with Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., held a press ...
USDA grants approval of nonbrowning Arctic apple
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Healthy Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its decision to deregulate the first ...
Non-GMO sales skyrocketed in 2014
In the battle surrounding GMO labeling, 2014 was a huge year. A measure was narrowly defeated in Oregon -- and one ...
How Food Babe mobilized an army against GMOs and chemicals
Over the past three years, Vani Hari has rapidly become one of the most popular voices on nutrition in mainstream ...
In wake of new EU GMO restrictions, Wales proposes further tightening
On January 13, the European Union (EU) voted in favour of amending legislation in Europe that will allow Member States ...
Truth about small farmers: They can’t make a living
I wondered how many small farmers, like myself, actually made a living. I looked into national statistics. Only the largest ...
NY farmers could receive additional legal protection from GMO seed lawsuits
Farmers in New York state would be better protected against lawsuits from biotech companies if genetically modified crops inadvertently grow ...
Will gene-edited products be considered GMOs?
The genome engineering methods currently used, particularly in mammalian cells, are difficult and inefficient. This has led scientists to search ...
China jumpstarts GM, worries about ‘foreign domination’
China does not want its genetically modified food (GM) market to be dominated by foreign products (and thus foreign companies) ...
Kevin Folta on Biogate: It’s a ‘gotcha’ taxpayer-funded fishing expedition
Last week I received a FOIA request that all of my emails bearing certain terms were going to be obtained ...
So can we really feed the world? Yes — and here’s how
Over the past six months I’ve been trying to figure out how we can feed ourselves sustainably and equitably without ...
Food sovereignty group sues Ghanian government over GM crop trials
Civil Society Group, Food Sovereignty Ghana has sued Government at the Human Rights Court, seeking an interim injunction on the ...
China plans to scale up cultivation of homegrown potatoes, likely investing in genetic tech
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture started the year with an awkwardly named but nevertheless resonating event — at the "Potato ...
Cloned white Angus could double beef production in 10 years
Dr. James West, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and chief science officer of CAG, has developed a way ...
Massachusetts lawmakers to put GM labeling bill on governor’s desk this session
A food fight is shaping up between advocates clamoring to require labels on products that include genetically modified ingredients and ...
No climate benefit to biofuel crops
Nearly all of the studies that have been used to promote the deployment of biofuels over the past two decades ...
Center for Food Safety will defend Jackson County, Oregon in GMO lawsuit
Local anti-GMO forces celebrated a Friday ruling allowing them to join Jackson County in defense of last year’s voter-passed ban ...
Assessing impact of India’s 5-year GMO Bt brinjal ban
Monday was the fifth anniversary of the imposition of a moratorium on the commercialization of genetically modified brinjal by the ...
Rebranding genetic modification as ‘ethical crop breeding’
Genetic modification (GM) should be re-branded as ‘ethical crop breeding’ with the patented technology used for ‘the greater good’ rather than ...
