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.
3D-printed steak is on the menu for the future
Whether it comes from a plant or the cells of an animal, it's becoming increasingly clear that the meat of ...
CRISPR climate game changer: What if we engineered rice to dramatically cut methane emissions?
The complexity of microbial communities has been a major obstacle to discovering technologies that can prevent diseases and improve agriculture ...
Reversing deforestation and biodiversity loss: Can synthetic palm oil help protect the world’s tropical forests?
The world’s cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil, palm oil production is a primary driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss in ...
Viewpoint: Dissecting the misguided demonization of glyphosate, one of the world’s most effective and safest weedkillers
Social media's coverage of glyphosate has been on a par with that for the Covid vaccine – misunderstandings, mistruths and ...
Viewpoint: The future king of England’s backward views on biotechnology and farming are a ‘threat to the health of the nation’
The heir to the [British] throne’s belief that GM technology will cause the “biggest disaster environment of all time” has put ...
Latest CRISPR food innovation: Nutritionally super-charged lettuce
[PhD student Yarin] Livneh's most recent research is leveraging gene editing technology CRISPR/Cas to... improve the nutritional quality of an ...
First CRISPR food hits market: Sicilian Rouge tomato with blood pressure-lowering GABA available in Japan
Genome-edited food made with CRISPR–Cas9 technology is being sold on the open market for the first time. Since September, the ...
‘Current varieties of coffee aren’t optimized for current conditions’: CRISPR is key to developing climate change-resistant brews
Humanity consumes a half-trillion cups annually of the caffeinated brew — almost double from a decade ago — yet coffee ...
Only female chickens produce eggs, so millions of newborn male chicks are killed each year. Here’s how gene editing could put an end to this cruel practice
Pressure has been growing for some time on the layer sector to end the culling of male chicks, which are ...
Viewpoint: In Roundup-cancer cases, juries are often swayed by emotional arguments — but the facts are in glyphosate’s favor
A jury in San Bernardino can't believe that Donnetta Stephens’ cancer was caused because she used Roundup. In a post-COVID-19 ...
‘Organic utopia didn’t materialize’: ‘Science wins’, say farmers, as Boulder County, Colorado repeals ban on GMO crops
Boulder County long ago decided to preserve more than 25,000 acres of Open Space lands and world class views by ...
What are the evolutionary origins of modern-day marijuana?
The cultivation of marijuana has much longer roots than we previously understood, according to [a new] study — including evidence ...
‘An increase in food production does not necessarily result in less hunger’: Why we need a second Green Revolution embracing genetics and organic farming
Most people believe hunger is caused by food scarcity, however this is wrong. There is currently more than enough food ...
AI and lasers might replace conventional weed killing techniques in some applications
Like "The Terminator" for weeds, the Carbon Robotics machine, dubbed “Bud,” rolls through farm fields using artificial intelligence to discern ...
GMO purple tomatoes with more antioxidants poised for spring US rollout
Genetically-modified (GM) purple tomatoes with high levels of health-giving antioxidants - developed by Norwich scientists - could be available in the USA from ...
‘Natural compounds to replace antibiotics?’ Soy-derived cow feed supplement could slow the rise of superbugs
South Dakota State University scientists are researching ways to help animals stay healthy using an antimicrobial compound produced by soybean ...
What causes obesity? Debate rages between ‘what you eat’ and ‘how much you eat’ factions
The usual way of thinking considers obesity a problem of energy balance. Take in more calories than you expend—in other ...
Viewpoint: ‘Unnecessary delays’ — Activist maneuvers slow rollouts of nutritionally-enhanced Golden Rice
The consumption of the genetically modified rice variety known as Golden Rice (GR) offers a potent and cost-effective strategy to ...
Viewpoint: 10 stupid agriculture and food truisms that need to die
In the spirit of moving forward into the new year and helping to stop the spread of misinformation, here are ...
Bill Nye reaffirms belief that foods from GMO seeds are safe and can be beneficial
In an exclusive interview with Mashed, [Bill Nye talked about] issues that mean so much to him — including GMOs ...
Does what we eat affect brain performance and health?
Food plays an important role in brain performance and health. In our review “Brain foods – the role of diet ...
How gene editing livestock protects farmers from climate change
In temperate regions such as Europe, cows are able to lose excess heat to the environment, as certain cattle breeds ...
Viewpoint: How ‘bad faith’ journalists corrupt our understanding of crop biotechnology and undermine science
In a column published in the newspaper Le Monde, the journalist Stéphane Foucart, explains that GMO technology has not significantly ...
Viewpoint: ‘Lower food prices, limiting exposure to toxins, fewer diseases in crops.’ These are the advances missed by countries that reject GM technology
Two new papers aim to quantify the social welfare and economic costs that countries inflict upon themselves by restricting the ...
The biggest threat to honeybees is not pesticides but Varroa mites — and beekeepers may have accidentally fueled the plague
Propolis is a sticky material that bees make from a mixture of wax and resins gathered from a wide variety ...
Viewpoint: No more Christmas trees? Why proposed bans on neonicotinoids won’t protect bees but will threaten many other plants
With Christmas so close, many of us in Michigan have enjoyed a common holiday tradition this year: finding the perfect ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group on the wrong side of science with simplistic attack on animal agriculture’s impact on climate
With Christmas just around the corner, you're probably finalizing your dinner plans and wrapping those last few presents before sticking ...
