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.
Viewpoint: As the worm turns — Don’t get your science from the guy who says a tapeworm ate his brain
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.) isn’t known for subtlety. As the ringleader of America’s anti-vaccine movement, the rogue presidential ...
Bumble bees under increasing threat from climate change
The decline of the bumblebees is highly concerning as they are vital for ecosystems. They pollinate flowers and crops. If ...
Podcast: Indigenous people have been using biochar to fertilize soil for centuries. Could renewing this practice be a lasting solution for carbon sequestration?
Reducing emissions from farming will be key to meeting this country's climate goals. Agriculture is the fifth largest source of ...
Agricultural science and organic farming: Time to change our trajectory
When the term organic farming was first used (ca. 1941; Paull, 2014), it was as a response to the introduction ...
Decline of dairy? Bird flu found in milk another factor in plummeting milk popularity
Milk is defined by its percentages: nonfat, 2 percent, whole. Now there is a different kind of milk percentage to ...
‘My identity was tied to veganism’: Why this restaurant owner decided to swap plant-based cuisine for regeneratively-grown meat
Mollie Engelhart, owner of Sage Vegan Bistro, a Los Angeles staple known for its plant-based menu, calls herself a “card-carrying” ...
Breaking news on Golden Rice: Philippines Agriculture Department files motion to reverse court ruling blocking the import and growing of two genetically modified crops
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has sought the reconsideration of the Court of Appeals (CA)’s decision against the commercial propagation ...
Meat from wood? Newest alternative protein is made from paper manufacturing waste
What if, instead of eating crickets or cell-cultured meat, we relied on an everyday raw material to put food on ...
Terraforming Mars? How cultivating symbiotic soil bacteria could transform ‘inhospitable’ Martian dust into fertile soil
Martian soil differs significantly from Earth’s—it lacks essential nutrients, contains perchlorates (a toxic chemical), and is highly alkaline. These factors ...
Ghana approves fourteen GMO varieties — maize and 6 soybean — for planting and consumption, dismissing activists attempt to block innovation
Ghana’s apex human rights court has dismissed an interlocutory injunction application brought against [the] National Biosafety Authority (NBA) by Food ...
Viewpoint: Unusual bedfellows—Sen John Fetterman offers support for Alabama’s and Florida’s ban on cell-based lab-grown beef while fellow Democrats slam Republicans who-back such measures as fear-promoting
Last week, Florida became the first US state to ban the production and sale of lab-grown, or “cell-cultivated” meat. “Take ...
Gene edited, low cost, ultra high-density protein soy greenlit for sale by USDA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has granted Amfora, Inc. an exemption for its ...
Bill Gates: This ‘lost grain’ found across Africa is packed with nutrition and could help fight food insecurity
While wheat and corn have long dominated American plates and agricultural policies, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates highlighted a lesser-known African grain named Fonio as a ...
Viewpoint: Aftershocks from American Academy of Pediatrics attack on glyphosate—‘Misinformation about the genetic engineering of crops hinders the development of sustainable agriculture technologies’
Repetition creates belief. And claims about the harms of glyphosate have persisted for decades. Unfortunately, even medical organizations like the ...
Should biodegradable food packaging be allowed in certified organic compost?
Colorado organic fruit farmer Steve Ela knows first-hand how central compost is to his organic farm—and all organic agriculture. It ...
Microbe-made food: Solein pulls climate-friendly protein out of thin air — and they’re scaling up production
The world's first commercial-scale factory for making nutrient-rich and versatile protein from air and sustainable energy has opened its doors ...
Acorns, pine nuts, pistachios, oats: Here’s what people ate 15,000 years ago, before the dawn of agriculture
The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind - a revolution in diet ...
Are paper cups better for the environment than plastic cups? The answer may surprise you
Paper cups are no alternatives to plastic cups to avoid toxic chemicals, as the latte coffee you take with you ...
AI-engineered materials could absorb CO2 faster than trees — and speed up carbon cleanup initiatives
Scientists have hailed the “exciting” discovery of a type of porous material that can store carbon dioxide ...
‘We are being left behind’: Here’s how gene editing can transform New Zealand’s agriculture
New Zealand’s food and fibre industry is built on generations of selective breeding – from ryegrass and cows to kiwifruit and apples. But recent improvements ...
This vegan blue cheese blew Good Food Award competitors out of the water. Then the dairy industry lobbied to have them disqualified
Something stinks in the world of cheese, but this time it's not the product – it's the sour grapes emanating ...
Eating plant-based is unhealthy? Taking a closer look at viral study that links heart problems to vegan diets
A new study on whether plant-based meat alternatives have cardiometabolic health benefits has led to a condemnation of vegan food ...
Where will synthetic biology for agriculture be in a decade? Here are six experts on the cutting edge of innovation
Synthetic biology is a remarkable set of technologies that can change our world forever. It’s received a lot of hype ...
CRISPR crop gene editing benefits for agriculture highlighted in US Senate testimony
On April 23rd, Georg Jander, a professor from the Boyce Thompson Institute, addressed an audience in the offices of the U.S ...
Viewpoint: Philippines court bungled its interpretation of the precautionary principle in suspending the growing of Vitamin A enhanced Golden Rice
Principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration laid out the premise of the precautionary rule in international environmental law. It states: ...
Novel plant-based meat alternatives are at times a better health choice than whole foods. Here’s a case for labeling
Plant-based alternatives to meat, cheese, eggs and yoghurt should be labelled and categorised more clearly to ensure people are aware of products that are ...
Viewpoint: A science-based assessment of glyphosate — risks and benefits
Contrasting perspectives on glyphosate’s use require a risk-benefit analysis. While some focus solely on risks, a closer examination reveals its ...
