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.
How we can preserve biodiversity while maintaining agricultural yields, meet nutritional demands
[Editor's note: Claire Kremen is a professor of conservation biology at University of California, Berkeley, where she also co-directs the Center for Diversified ...
Uganda’s president supports bill allowing country’s farmers to grow GMO crops
The pressure to pass the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill 2012 has started building up in recent weeks after some parts ...
Nobel laureate biochemist Sir John Roberts calls anti-GMO activism a ‘crime against humanity’
Though developed countries stand against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for specific political and economic reasons, it is an effective tool ...
Video: Facts, fears and future of GMOs—in a nutshell
GMOs are one of the most controversial areas of science. Genetic engineering is used in many fields, but even though ...
Opposition to Dow-DuPont merger emerges among major farmer group
[Editor's note: The National Farmer's Union is the second largest general farm organization in the country. It represents more than 200,000 ...
Non-GMO movement plagued by ‘rampant sexism’, critic says
It’s no secret that [moms are] among the most coveted demographics of the non-GMO marketing machine. Jeffrey Smith, one of ...
Australian commission calls for state governments to lift GM crop bans
The Productivity Commission has released a range of sweeping recommendations to cut the costs of regulation in agriculture. ... It ...
Potato pest developing resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides
The potato industry may be losing a mainstay in the battle against [the plant-feeding insect] psyllids, according to a recent ...
Former UN head Kofi Annan: Science must play role in advancing agriculture, particularly in Africa
“Science and technology should play a role in raising agriculture productivity, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said [former secretary general of ...
Plant probiotics: Genetic switch in plants could trigger soil bacteria to increase crop yields
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have pinpointed a key genetic switch that helps soil bacteria ...
Video: Genetic modification isn’t as ‘unnatural’ as you think
[Editor's note: Jenna Gallegos is a plant biotechnology PhD student at the University of California - Davis and a member ...
ChemChina’s proposed takeover of Syngenta fuels GMO fears among some in China
The opposition to genetically altered food and grains in China has been brought to the forefront by China National Chemical’s ...
Ripen on demand? New generation of GMO crops could dramatically increase yield
Farmers could one day control when their crops ripen after the development of modified rice that flowers on demand. Despite ...
CRISPR gene editing could speed up photosynthesis and boost crop yields—But it will take time
Unlike previous approaches to GM crops that introduce foreign DNA into an organism, genome editing achieves much the same outcome ...
Herbicide glyphosate now labeled ‘carcinogenic’ under CA’s Prop 65—Law that some say ‘only benefits lawyers’
The state of California can now require Roundup to have a label on it stating that it is a possible ...
Extreme Green hypocrisy? Center for Biological Diversity, other anti-GMO groups partner on March for Science
[Editor's note: The following is an open letter to the Center for Biological Diversity regarding their participation in the "March ...
Beyond Golden Rice: Efforts abound to biofortify crops with vitamin A but regulatory hurdles high
[Editor's note: Giovanni Giuliano is research director at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development.] Since ...
To expedite development of climate-resistant crops, Australia may have to relax gene-editing rules
Australia's classification of genetic modification is inhibiting the country's potential for future crop growth, according to a University of Western ...
Dispute between Monsanto, Indian seed company could upend world’s largest cotton-producing market
A little-known cotton seed company has taken on Monsanto, with the aid of a right-wing Hindu group that helped propel ...
Video: 14-year-old builds GMO food detector with parts ordered online for $110
While his classmates were playing video games or scrolling through Facebook, as many teenagers tend to do, Gaurav Mittal was ...
Is post-Brexit Britain poised to embrace less political, more science-based approach to regulating pesticides?
[Editor's note: The following is a briefing paper on bees and neonicotinoids by the House of Commons Library, a library ...
‘Natural age is over’: UK Royal Society chief heralds ‘new age of biology’ but warns of resistance
Venki Ramakrishnan grew up in India and knows all about malnutrition and poor health. Today as President of ... the ...
Monsanto, corporations accused of ‘buying scientists’ to place fake news in academic journals
[Editor's note: Paul Thacker is a consultant to nonprofits critical of GM technology. He is well known for his personal attacks on ...
Dow, DuPont merger clears hurdle with approval by European Union
The European Commission has given the go-ahead to the merger of US chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont. The deal ...
Majority of EU countries vote against 2 new GM corn varieties but approval still possible
A majority of EU countries voted on Monday [March 27, 2017] against allowing two new genetically modified crops to be ...
UK farmer: Here’s how the herbicide glyphosate helps me farm sustainably
[Editor's note: Ian Pigott is a farmer in Harpenden, UK. Located just 20 miles from the center of London, he grows ...
7 strategies to better communicate the scientific consensus on GMO safety to skeptical millennials
The ... genetically engineered crops study by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) is a true consensus on GMOs. ... How ...
