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.
Talking Biotech: Percy vs. Goliath—Hollywood aside, what really went down with Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser’s court battle with Monsanto?
The story of Percy Schmeiser is a well known tale of big biotech against the little farmer from rural Saskatchewan ...
GM versions of fall armyworm can effectively control the insect pest, study confirms
Genetically modified insects offer a sustainable solution for controlling fall armyworm, a devastating agricultural pest that has already developed resistance ...
Would you eat bacteria to limit climate change?
Ideas about how to reform agriculture to make it less destructive vary widely, ranging from organic farming and eating less ...
‘Safer than natural’: Japan’s leading food risk expert says genetically modified and gene edited crops are safer than ‘wild varieties’ and offer ‘improved taste and yield’
When comparing artificially modified crops such as GM/genome editing with natural crops, "natural" seems safe at first glance, but it ...
Viewpoint: Gene edited crops key to addressing climate dislocation and sustainability challenges
Producing food for a population of nearly eight billion takes an enormous toll on the world's fresh water supply. And ...
Global forest diversity: Earth supports 9,200 more tree species than originally thought — over 73,000 in total
A new study involving more than 100 scientists from across the globe and the largest forest database yet assembled estimates ...
Viewpoint: ‘Herbicides reduce the cost of food production by half and triple yields’: Mass bans on synthetic chemicals would open the doors to 32 invasive species that threaten African crops
A recent survey by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) shows the 32 key Invasive species in Kenya include 11 arthropods, ...
Viewpoint: Essential to feeding the world, synthetic fertilizers have negative environmental impacts. Here’s how genetic engineering can change that
Much of the world is preoccupied with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but there are other global challenges, including climate change, ...
240 million people suffer annually from malaria. Could deploying CRISPR to gene edit mosquitoes’ pesticide resistance contain the scourge?
Insecticides kill off most of the mosquitoes in an area. But a small number may survive because something about their ...
Viewpoint: Will the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen finally adopt science this year — instead of promoting evidence-free scaremongering?
For over 25 years, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released its so-called “dirty dozen” list, which inaccurately disparages popular, ...
Viewpoint: Challenging organic advocates’ claims that agroecology and regenerative farming can sustainably feed France
"Organic could satisfy the needs of the French population quite easily if the proportion of animal products in our diet ...
China’s ‘future foods’: Lab grown meat and plant-based eggs on 5-year plan food and agriculture policy table
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has set the lab-grown meat industry abuzz with the release of its official five-year agricultural plan ...
‘Powerful tool of science to feed the future‘: Philippines poised for the ‘massive production’ of genetically modified, Vitamin A enhanced Golden Rice
To utilize and promote biotechnology in the country, the Department of Agriculture (DA) on [February 2] said this year marks ...
Viewpoint: ‘One-size-fits-all pesticide policy hurts farmers and doesn’t help pollinators’ — Why Boulder, Colorado ignores science in push to ban neonicotinoids
It is commonly cited within the beekeeping community that pesticides called neonics can negatively impact honeybees. An oft-invoked visualization shows ...
Viewpoint: Why organic farming is a climate change disaster
Organic agriculture is highly inefficient, producing roughly 40% less food than conventional farming on the same amount of acreage. One consequence ...
French winegrower pleads for gene editing approval to provide disease and drought resistance
Does genetic innovation have its place in the vineyards of tomorrow? In an open letter, the winegrower and trade unionist ...
Viewpoint: $24 billion in global savings — Here’s why the UK should break from Europe and embrace GMOs, CRISPR crops and other agricultural biotechnologies
As part of the European Union, the UK was a stronghold of anti-GMO opposition. Post-Brexit, however, Britain is changing its ...
Viewpoint: Free speech dustup? Joe Rogan, Spotify, and especially Neil Young — promoting anti-science fear mongering on GMOs — all came away looking foolish
Critics have contended that Joe Rogan’s podcast, hosted by Spotify, promotes vaccine-skeptical guests and boosts the spread of misinformation about ...
We need to double food production by 2050. Here’s how genetically tweaking cowpea, soybean, and potato could help meet that target
AZoCleantech speaks to Amanda Cavanagh from the University of Essex abouth the future of agriculture in a changing climate and ...
Biden Administration has followed Trump’s lead in challenging Europe’s crop biotechnology rejectionism
Biden and Brussels are still at loggerheads over food production, despite a face-saving communiqué in November. Indeed, while the U.S. pleads for moderation, France ...
Viewpoint: Are synthetic pesticides necessary for farming? How agroecology, anti-biotechnology activist groups misrepresent the science and influence government policy
With the clearly stated desire to influence the French presidency of the European Union on the pesticide issue, the CCFD-Terre ...
Viewpoint: Why consumers will ignore new ‘bioengineered’ labels
The USDA’s mandatory labeling for bioengineered crops (f/k/a GMO) went into effect January 1st. But will it actually change consumer ...
Viewpoint: ‘Only GMOs will save the livestock sector’ — Genetically modified crops could lower the cost of feed 20% in Kenya
The rise in cost of raw materials has forced 50 percent of Kenya’s dairy feed manufacturers to close shop or downsize ...
What’s the future of gene edited fish?
CRISPR-Cas9 is a popular and accessible gene editing tool. In aquaculture, it has been used to develop several fishes with ...
Viewpoint: Neil Young’s GMO and biotechnology rejection preceding his Joe Rogan-Spotify awakening featured alliance with notorious anti-vaxxers
Prior to 2021, the demographic that overwhelmingly included vaccine deniers was Neil Young's political tribe. Find a Whole Foods, and ...
Study credits climate, not genetics, for bumper US corn crop
Most of the maize yield improvements seen in the US corn belt state of Nebraska can be attributed to a ...
Video: Will consumers embrace eating insects? 2 billion people globally already do
Around 2 billion people choose to eat insects on regular basis. More than 1,900 species are eaten across 130 countries ...
