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.
Reducing plastic waste: Recyclable eco-friendly, plant-based packaging in development could dramatically reduce microplastic pollution
Nowadays, those who shop for food in discount stores will almost always be buying plastic packaging as well. The vast ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka announces plans to ban agrochemical imports on path toward going 100% organic. It didn’t work in Cuba and here’s why it won’t work here
[Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's] decision to shift totally to organic agriculture, from conventional, could lead to widespread hunger and ...
Robotics, sensors, drones, and more: Agricultural technology enables farmers to go green without going broke
While always stewards of the land, [farmers have] faced a continuous squeeze over the decades with the real price of ...
Podcast — ‘We’re growing food now in a way that doesn’t leave room for other biodiversity’: How GMO crops are affecting the monarch butterfly and what can be done about it
[su_panel color="#3A3A3A" border="1px solid #3A3A3A" radius="2" text_align="left"]Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from an interview with University of Georgia ...
Tired of eating strawberries that taste like cardboard? CRISPR gene editing poised to improve ‘fruit quality’ and disease resistance of next-generation fruits
Recent technology has been developed to precisely engineer genes for traits of interest. This approach is known as "CRISPR" gene ...
Meet Tom, Dick and Wilma: These precision farming robots can ‘maximize yields at the individual plant level’
[A] UK startup called the Small Robot Company is about to change how farming is done. SRC uses two autonomous ...
Mexican court upholds 2024 government ban of Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller
Mexico's plan to phase out weed-killer glyphosate amid concerns the pesticide causes cancer has seen it clash with Bayer and ...
Book review: Jennifer Thompson’s ‘GM Crops and the Global Divide’ offers lessons drawn from the history of the agricultural biotechnology revolution, for activists to CRISPR advocates
I’ve spent the last few weeks reading “GM Crops and the Global Divide,” the new book by Jennifer Thomson, emeritus professor at ...
‘Imposing expansion of organic farming by decree counterproductive’: Farmer, ag industry executive challenges Europe to rethink its anti-biotech, anti-nuclear ideology
In the midst of the Farm to Fork (F2F) debate and the renegotiation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the ...
Genetically modified Bt cotton helped eradicate pink bollworm — and saved US farmers $200 million over five years. Now, scientists and farmers are deploying technology to target other pests
A recent study from the University of Arizona shows that farmers were able to eradicate [pink bollworm] with the help ...
Viewpoint: ‘Crops were in the fields, but folks were going hungry’: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) can optimize how produce gets from the farm to your plate
"I can't think of a better or more noble application of artificial intelligence than into the food supply chain," says ...
Methane emissions from burping cattle are major contributor to global warming. Here’s an innovative way to address that using a ‘cow cocktail’
Branded Kowbucha, a nod to the popular fermented drink kombucha, it’s being tested by one of the world’s biggest dairy ...
Israeli startup makes real cow’s milk and human breast milk directly from cells — no animals required
Founded in 2018, BioMilk is an offshoot from over a decade of research by scientists at the Hebrew University of ...
Viewpoint: If the EU is serious about its Farm to Fork goals, it must address massive ‘yield gap’ between conventional and organic farming. Ag biotechnology is the solution
The EU’s Green Deal has a “Farm to Fork” strategy designed to meet the global sustainable development goals and increase ...
Viewpoint — ‘By 2050 agricultural land will increase by an area twice the size of India’: The US should use its ‘influence’ to encourage adoption of crop biotechnology
If crop and pasture yields continue to grow as projected, by 2050 agricultural land will need to increase by an ...
Hacking plants’ circadian clock: How watering and applying pesticides at the most effective time of day can boost yields
Like humans, plants have an ‘internal clock’ that monitors the rhythms of their environment. The authors of a study published ...
‘Compassionate caviar?’ Cell-based fish egg technology could make an exclusive food accessible to everyone — and reduce our carbon footprint
Caviar is renowned as an exclusive luxury typically only enjoyed by champagne-swilling elites in five-star suites or on-board first-class flights ...
Prevention first, pesticides second: Why regenerative agriculture does not mean chemical-free farming
The philosophies of regenerative agriculture, sustainable agriculture, and holistic agriculture are generating a great deal of interest these days. While ...
Gene editing ‘could make a very real and positive difference’ in farming — but will regulating it as a GMO stunt its potential? Here’s a guide
What is gene editing and what does the process actually entail? According to [a UK Department of Food, Environment and ...
Viewpoint: As meat consumption reaches record highs, it’s clear that substituting plants for meat won’t help address climate concerns. Here’s what will
[G]lobal emissions from food production are expected to rise 60% by 2050, in large part because of increased livestock production ...
Convenience – not sustainability – is major driving factor behind US consumer food purchases, study finds
[An] American Food Journey report sheds light on a long-standing knowledge gap between producers and consumers around their expectations for food. It ...
Top EU court upholds partial ban on 3 neonicotinoid pesticides, in bid to halt alleged honeybee losses
The European Union’s top court on [May 6] upheld the EU’s partial ban on three insecticides linked to harming bees, ...
China to restrict reliance on foreign seed companies to foster lagging innovation in genetic engineering and advanced breeding
China will encourage technological innovation to boost domestic supplies of high-quality seeds, dubbed "agriculture microchips," officials said at a seed ...
Viewpoint — ‘We’re trying to mimic mother nature’: Why healthy soil is key to cutting back on pesticides and growing climate-resilient crops
[Les Seiler and his brother] have been practicing “no-till” farming [in Ohio] for 36 years and counting. That means they ...
Impossible Food’s GM ingredient that gives its meatless burgers their meaty taste upheld as ‘safe’ by federal court, rejecting Center for Food Safety suit
When the Center for Food Safety brought the approval of Impossible Foods' heme ingredient to the federal courts, its reasoning ...
Viewpoint — ‘It is wrong to leave Africans at the mercy of organic farming’: Western activists should not force ‘unproductive agroecology’ on developing farmers
Because of GM technology, crop-protection tools, and more, farmers are growing more food and cotton on less land than ever ...
Viewpoint: ‘Is an ethical diet enough?’ Veganism has become mainstream — but is it really more sustainable?
A vegan diet contains very low amounts of saturated fats and cholesterol, high amounts of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, ...
