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.
Breeders work to mainstream genetic diversity of potato
Around the country, determined plant breeders, farmers, and chefs are joining forces to reinvent the potato and the transform the ...
Biology of flavorful orange juice
A “so what” story. That’s how I would label the enticingly titled “Juicy Secrets” investigation of “premium” orange juice by ...
Video: Bill Gates advocates for GMOs in Brussels
Bill and Melinda Gates spoke to a Brussels audience, which didn’t appear shocked by their endorsement of GMO crops. The ...
Moms learn about GMOs on Illinois farm tours
When she read about an Illinois Farm Families field tour, Heather Guido applied. In May, she and other women in ...
Biotech crops show global promise but suffer from restrictive regulations
A paper by Calestous Juma and Katherine Gordon at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs argues that although many transgenic crops ...
Trade complicates handling of GMO crops, GM labeling could, too
The use of biotechnology has made things more complicated for seed companies, grain handlers and farmers. Charles Hurburgh, Iowa State ...
Oregon governor seeks authority to establish ‘control areas’ for GMO crops
A bill proposed by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber seeks to expand the authority of state farm regulators over genetically engineered ...
Kansas farmers join GM corn lawsuit against Syngenta
You may have seen the ads on TV from lawyers looking for small town farmers. That's because Kansas farmers are ...
Consumers in global survey consider GMO-free foods very important
Asked what health attributes are very important when buying food, consumers in a global survey by Nielsen ranked “all-natural” and ...
Genome editing is future of biotech
I asked some of those social thought leaders for their predictions of what we can expect from biotech and biopharma ...
Orange juice might be missing at breakfast unless farmers try GMOs
Everybody loves Florida orange juice. Since its emergence in the late 1940s, the sunny beverage has survived hurricanes and anti-sugar diet ...
Chinese, New Zealander researchers look for year-round breeding genes in sheep
In 2013, the Chinese government announced its intention to achieve self- sufficiency in red meat production by 2020. This announcement ...
Scientists identify plant traits for crop improvements using in vitro cultures
Humans have been making use of plants for as long as there have been humans and plants. The actual cultivation ...
Nutrition student challenges American nutrition societies to enter conversation over GMOs
NOTE: This letter was written by Kevin Klatt, a PhD student at Cornell University studying molecular nutrition. The National Academies ...
Consumers willing to pay more for GMOs with health benefits
Genetically modified crops with an increased vitamin and/or mineral content have large potential to improve public health, but their availability for ...
Could genetic modification save male pigs from castration?
Each year, about 100 million little piggies go to market in the U.S. Half of those oinkers, unsurprisingly, are boars, ...
Genetic diversity of crops and animals threatened by climate change
Climate change threatens the genetic diversity of the world's food supply, and saving crops and animals at risk will be ...
Australian organic farmer appeals judgement denying compensation for GMO “contamination”
Two appeal hearings in the Marsh v Baxter case have been scheduled from March 23 to 25 in the Court of ...
Why organic seedless watermelons could be considered GMOs–Or chemically-created mutants
Is a seedless watermelon, including those sold as organic, a GMO, a hybrid, or something else altogether—a chemically altered mutant? There is ...
U.S. regulators to blame for lack of progress in biopharming
Dr. Henry Miller’s cri de coeur is well-earned: he was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology (too ...
Why communicating the science risks of GMOs is so challenging
The science of agricultural biotechnology is a proxy battleground for many people with political or cultural objections to GMOs, much in ...
‘Giving EU countries right to block GMOs on non-scientific grounds sets dangerous precedent’
Speaking after the European Parliament's debate on the possibility for the Member States to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of ...
Hungary plans to initiate anti-GMO European alliance
Hungary will initiate a joint alliance of European Union member states rejecting the use of genetically modified organisms in farming with the aim to ...
Chinese grown GM rice ‘significantly reduces pesticide use’, improves farmer health
Through the analysis of the data collected from the physical examination from farmers in China, a new study shows that GM ...
South Australian farmers lobby against GM moratorium
Opponents have dismissed a new push to overturn a moratorium on genetically modified crops (GM) in South Australia. Grain Producers ...
New generation herbicide-tolerant soybeans, cotton gain USDA approval
Monsanto Co. received final U.S. approval on Thursday for herbicide-tolerant crops to be used with a new herbicide the company ...
Following ‘superbug’ genes in cattle could shed light on antibiotic resistant germs
Researchers at Colorado State University are investigating the weighty topic of antibiotic resistance – an issue with ramifications for global ...
