Daily Food & Ag 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: Will new breeding techniques help make European agriculture more competitive?
"Breeding companies have been eagerly awaiting this for a long time," begins Sjaak van der Ploeg, Breeding & Strategy Lead ...
Viewpoint: In this age of disinformation, how can scientists and farmers promote food literacy
...[W]e need to ask for more than feel-good, farm narratives that have limited transparency. While we want to support local ...
Viewpoint: CRISPR-hating activists air their grievances about gene editing farming innovation
Why Farmers Are Sounding the Alarm on EU Deregulation? The European Parliament’s recent decision to authorize the commercialization of plants ...
EU bureaucrats are finally catching up to the gene editing revolution in food and agriculture
For decades, "Made in Europe" has been synonymous with a hard-line stance against anything remotely resembling genetic modification. But the ...
Viewpoint: Treat food as medicine
Diet is one of the three key components to a longer life (along with exercise and sleep), and it offers ...
Viewpoint: As MAHA blows up over Supreme Court ruling limiting glyphosate litigation, Trump offers toothless plan to reduce pesticides in food
President Trump, facing a backlash from supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allying himself with the chemical ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate may be hazardous, but it is not dangerous as used by farmers. Critics of the Supreme Court’s Roundup ruling garble hazard with risk
... In epidemiology, causation is usually a population-level inference. Researchers ask whether an exposure reliably changes disease risk across groups of ...
Viewpoint: Which is worse: Trace PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ on strawberries or the fear that scares people away from eating them?
A wellness blog called Mamavation had a lab test two containers of Driscoll’s from a single store on a single ...
Glyphosate affirmed as safe: Supreme Court rejects lawsuit claiming Roundup herbicide causes cancer, upholding EPA determination
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Monsanto in a high-stakes dispute over cancer warnings on pesticide labels. In an ...
Which is better for building healthy farm soil? Organic offers no special edge.
Soil health is driven by soil organic matter, which is driven by plant biomass inputs, which are driven by photosynthesis ...
Viewpoint: Raw milk and the myth of safety—ProPublica exposes the growing anti-homogenization movement
This story was originally published by ProPublica. McAfee isn’t any ordinary farmer. He is a raw-milk zealot who has escaped ...
Viewpoint: Behind the effort to re-purpose the tobacco attack strategy to fight ultra-processed foods
Tobacco companies spent decades honing marketing strategies, flavor engineering and processing technologies that helped addict consumers to cigarettes. Then, in ...
Debunking vs. Restoring Trust: New and better strategies to fight deliberate disinformation
US and global health authorities have recommended seed oils for decades for their heart-healthy essential fats. But in 2024, the ...
Republican lawmakers spread misinformation claiming solar farms permanently destroy potato farms
In January, Michigan Republican state Rep. Cam Cavitt posted a 51-second clip to Facebook labeled “Solar Farm SECRET.” In the ...
Viewpoint: Why you should ignore organic food advocates’ advice to avoid ‘pesticide soaked’ conventional fruits and vegetables
The most commonly stated reason people buy organic food is avoidance of pesticide residues. Indeed, organic producers cannot use conventional ...
Challenging anti-GMO disinformation: Why genetically-tweaked crops offer bushels of benefits
GMOs are one of the most controversial topics within our global food system. There are many misconceptions regarding what a GMO ...
Viewpoint—GMOs and sustainability: Why buying organic foods is the least environmentally-sensitive food choice—without offering any health benefits
In pursuit of sustainability, shoppers are reaching for the organic apple or the GMO-free chips. But if we truly want ...
Viewpoint: When food myths go viral, farmers pay the price
The media capitalises on “emotional content” and, when “clicks” are profit, the more outrageous the title, the bigger the margin ...
Viewpoint: Swine farmers are under attack for allegedly mistreating their animals. Here are the facts.
... While retired Col. Tom Pool is entitled to his opinions as an animal rights activist, his April 16 article ...
31 states have passed a confusing collection of regulations for cell-based meat and plant and insect alternative proteins
Over the past several years, the regulation of alternative proteins has received a lot of attention at the state level ...
Viewpoint: ‘Monsanto’ blues—Planned Netflix movie promises yet another round of anti-glyphosate disinformation
By now, many people have heard about a new propaganda movie … er, “drama film” … coming out about Monsanto, ...
Seed oil panic: RFK Jr. and influencers made linoleic acid a dietary villain and heart risk. Evidence points the other way — replacing them with animal fat is.
The seed oil panic has achieved full institutional legitimacy. ... The January 2026 dietary guidelines — which discarded 421 pages of scientific ...
UK gene-editing milestone: Livestock barley that increases ruminant value and reduces methane emissions is first-approved CRISPR crop
The UK has issued the first regulatory approval for a gene-edited crop under its new rules for precision breeding. The ...
Meat sits atop the U.S.-RFK, Jr. food pyramid. How healthy is the carnivore diet?
Meat is king, according to the U.S. government. The new dietary guidelines encourage people to consume red meat regularly, and ...
Viewpoint: Indian PM wants farmers to switch to 50% organic. It would take at least 10 years, likely won’t work, and isn’t more sustainable
... Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided it was time to ask Indians to brace themselves for price shocks and other ...
Viewpoint: RFK Jr. recommends replacing ‘poisonous’ seed oils with beef tallow. The American Heart Association says that could eventually kill you.
Beef tallow is a high-fat food that contains very limited micronutrients when consumed in typical dietary amounts. ... The high ...
Despite politicized disinformation, Midwest AI data centers are fueling a solar energy boom
Electricity has turned into one of the most important commodities in the [Midwest] region, with utility rates increasing in recent ...
