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.
CSPI’s Greg Jaffe: USDA should regulate GMOs, gene-edited crops based on end-product, not process
[Editor's note: Greg Jaffe is the Director of the Project on Biotechnology for the Center for Science in the Public ...
UK approves field trial of GM potatoes resistant to blight and nematode
In the United Kingdom, farming minister George Eustice (DEFRA) has approved a four-year trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes at ...
From kale to cows: Modern supermarket full of foods genetically modified by humans
Here are just a few of the modern supermarket offerings that we have been genetically modifying for centuries: Cow and ...
‘Unstoppable’: How corn took over America’s farmland
Farmers who had long rotated plantings among a diverse group of grains are increasingly turning to a single one. Corn ...
How Trump’s ‘get-tough’ immigration policy is impacting agricultural technology innovation
President Donald Trump's get-tough attitude on immigration is spurring a surge of high-tech investment in America's heartland, where farmers are ...
UK’s Labour Party ‘pledges to ban’ neonicotinoid insecticides if it takes power
Neonicotinoid seed treatments will be banned if Labour forms the next government, according to a leaked draft of the party’s ...
‘Organic civil war’: Do advocates care about promoting food security and sustainability?
Last June [2016] Stephanie Strom, reporting for the New York Times, broke the story about how Whole Foods had upset ...
Ghana suspends GMO cotton field trials after Monsanto withdraws funding
[Ghana's] Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has suspended trials of GMO cotton in the country after US Company ...
Podcast: Horticulturalist Kevin Folta exposes US Right to Know’s smear campaign against biotech scientists
The development of GMOs have helped farmers feed more people and create sustainable methods in modern agriculture. But that fact ...
What does USDA organic label really mean? WaPo investigation finds imported corn and soy often mislabelled
A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late [2016] from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, ...
India expected to approve 3 indigenously developed varieties of insect-resistant GMO Bt cotton
The government is expected to soon allow commercial release of three genetically modified (Bt) and indigenously developed varieties of cotton ...
What role can crop biotechnology play in feeding Nigeria’s growing population?
[Editor's note: Modesta Nnedinso Abugu is program assistant for the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology-Nigeria Chapter and Fellow of Cornell University’s ...
Federal judge rules EPA did not consider potential impact of neonicotinoids on insects besides bees
A Minnesota beekeeper has won a round against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a protracted lawsuit over a ...
Coming age of CRISPR gene editing: What in heck is the ‘Pink Chicken Project’?
A new website called "the Pink Chicken Project" offers up an intriguing nugget of an idea: what if we turned ...
GMO disease fighters: Zika-destroying GM mosquitoes may soon be joined by GM moths to quash cabbage and kale pest
A half-inch-long moth that devours kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts may not inspire the same fear as a Zika-carrying mosquito, but ...
Varroa mites—‘leading culprit’ of honey bee losses—hitchhike to nearby hives to spread disease
As the managed honey bee industry continues to grapple with significant annual colony losses, the Varroa destructor mite is emerging ...
If biofortified crops are goal, both genetic engineering and conventional breeding necessary
[Dr Swati Puranik, of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University in the UK] and her ...
India’s biotech regulator greenlights GMO mustard—But hurdles to commercialization remain
India's central biotech regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), on Thursday [May 11] cleared the genetically modified (GM) Mustard for ...
American Veterinary Medical Association joins 275+ organizations in endorsing safety of GM foods, opposes mandatory labeling
Given the safety of genetically modified organisms and genetically engineered foods, mandatory labeling of GMO and GE foods and food ...
Nigeria’s environment minister: We must ensure country does not become ‘dumping ground for GM foods’
The Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril has tasked regulatory agencies in the country to ensure that Nigeria ...
CRISPR race: Gene editing’s lower costs, regulations open door to more competition, improved crops
Monsanto ... is investing in gene editing in an effort to keep an edge over rival suppliers of high-tech crop seeds ...
GMO corn that shuts down carcinogenic fungal toxin could be healthcare boon in developing countries
Amid the GMO debate, one researcher is striving to use genetic modification to not just improve crop health, but potentially ...
Do real farmers think of Monsanto as ‘the oppressor’?
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, known on social media as the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer ...
US Right to Know calls Canadian researcher and university Monsanto ‘sock puppets’ — But finds no financial ties
The University of Saskatchewan and one of its well-known professors are acting like "sock puppets" for agri-business giant Monsanto, says ...
Merchants of doubt: US Right to Know’s latest smear targets public-service-focused Canadian scientist
A familiar pattern is emerging, and if you love science and respect scientists it should give you chills. This week ...
New generation GMO soybeans: How genetic tweaking might offset detrimental impact of rising temperatures
Published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, this study found the modified crop yielded more when subjected to both increased ...
CRISPR Chardonnay? Gene-edited grapes could fend off mildew, reduce pesticide use
Chardonnay is among the most popular and recognizable wines in the world. The grape’s genes essentially have been passed down ...
