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.
Fermentation and sustainability: Synthetic biology poised to bring us dairy-free milk and cheese that taste like the real thing
Fermentation is a type of biotechnology that uses microorganisms to create a chemical change that can produce food additives and ...
‘Lose-lose situation’: Facing unprofitable organic farming, Mexico cotton growers resort to illegally planting GMO seeds
Cotton producers [in Mexico are using] illegal seeds due to the government's ban on using transgenics and due to lack ...
Back to court? 300 lawyers challenge Bayer’s $2 Billion settlement proposal for future Roundup class-action lawsuits
Tens of thousands of people have sued Monsanto owner Bayer AG alleging their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers were caused ...
Viewpoint: Phase out neonicotinoids? Walmart’s new farmer mandates promote alarmist misinformation about bee health
Walmart is making two big asks from its producers. First, it’s encouraging fresh produce suppliers to “protect, restore, or establish ...
‘Future proofing’: Rediscovered wild coffee species could protect against production drops caused by climate change
In dense tropical forests in Sierra Leone, scientists have rediscovered a coffee species not seen in the wild in decades ...
Mexico 2024 glyphosate ban put on hold after Bayer successfully challenges presidential decree
A Mexican judge has sided with Bayer AG in a legal challenge to a government plan to prohibit glyphosate, according ...
‘For the benefit of all’: Why governments should play a ‘critical role’ in funding biotechnology research
Governments should invest in gene editing research to avoid profiteering by large multinationals at the expense of farmers, Farmers Union ...
‘Tools for sustainable agriculture of the future’: Biopesticides will be able to control pests, diseases, and weeds — and make crops more resistant to climate change
Biologicals are tools for the sustainable agriculture of the future... Biologicals are a class of agricultural products that include biopesticides, ...
Viewpoint: Is our western food system based on ‘intensive agriculture’ broken? Not if the environment and alleviating poverty and hunger matter
In the popular bourgeois imagination, the idealized farm looks something like the ones that sell produce at local farmers markets ...
Worth the higher price tag? What benefits are you really getting when you garden using organic seeds?
Whether a seed is labeled organic or not depends on the parent plant. If the parent plant was only treated ...
Viewpoint: ‘Consumer activist’ concerns over Florida proposal to use gene drives to extirpate Zika-carrying mosquitoes is thinly veiled anti-biotech attack
Now that their nemesis Monsanto is no longer a thing, [the Organic Consumers Association and the Center for Food Safety] ...
Kenya aims to multiply production of GMO insect-resistant cotton seeds 10-fold by 2022, and distribute across Africa
Farmers in Kenya have been harvesting an average of 5,300 tonnes lint of cotton against a demand of about 38,000 ...
Viewpoint: While China is investing heavily in addressing climate change’s impact on agriculture, US dallies. Here’s why we need to fix that
Popular proposals to cut food’s large environmental footprint rest on the idea that we have all the technologies and information ...
Genetically-engineered mosquitoes set for release in Florida Keys: Science offers tool to fight Zika, dengue, malaria but critics claim it’s unnecessary and potentially dangerous
U.K.-based biotechnology company Oxitec has partnered with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in an effort to control the invasive ...
Replacing fungicides? GMO potato crops appear to be the only solution to addressing late blight disease in sub-Saharan Africa
[Late blight disease] remains the main threat to potato production globally with a 15-30% production reduction. Using an average cost ...
Fighting gut inflammation? Limiting alcohol, sugar, processed foods and animal-based proteins could be key
Reporting their findings in the journal Gut, [a team of researchers at the University of Groningen and University Medical Centre ...
‘Cell-based fish is a logical answer’: With improved nutrition and lower CO2 emissions, cultivated fish can sustainably satiate our growing appetite for seafood
[Berlin-based startup Bluu Biosciences] claims that producing cell-based fish without harming the ecosystem and at competitive prices can make a ...
Viewpoint: Earth Day needs a sustainability do-over. It’s devolved into environmental Cassandras prophesying apocalypse, dishing antitechnology dirt and proselytizing for a ‘woke’ agenda
Sadly, today’s Earth Day shares something with the current political environment: It reeks of divisiveness. Earth Day has devolved into ...
CRISPR may help curb malaria by altering a mosquito’s gut genes, new study suggests
Altering a mosquito’s gut genes to make them spread antimalarial genes to the next generation of their species shows promise ...
Former New Zealand EPA chief scientist says agrochemicals help ‘provide safe and affordable food’
The US Department of Agriculture has calculated that pesticides have become less toxic, more potent (leading to lower application rates), ...
‘Blissfully unaware’: Many food manufacturers don’t realize new GM labeling law applies to them and are unprepared for end-of-year deadline
Compliance with the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) – which requires firms with annual sales of >$2.5m to label ...
CRISPR poised to deliver dramatic benefits in fighting hunger and disease in Africa
In Africa, hunger and starvation are rapidly accelerating. Economic issues and dramatic weather changes resulted in over 20% of the population experiencing ...
Fighting cancer in humans has opened doors to controlling chemical resistance in weeds
Glyphosate was first introduced into Australian broadacre cropping systems almost half a century ago as an effective way to kill ...
Zinc-fortified wheat set to boost access to essential mineral for millions of poor people
Scientists at a leading global grains research institute expect to sharply ramp up new wheat varieties enriched with zinc that ...
Viewpoint: Does glyphosate affect the gut microbiome? How modest findings snowball into ‘shameless’ sensational claims
Here is a report from the Environmental Protection Agency of the Danish Ministry of the Environment: "Effects of glyphosate on ...
Revamped regulations could accelerate Kenya’s GM, insect-resistant, Bt cotton approval
Radical reforms in Kenya's agricultural sector are set to inject fresh impetus to Bt cotton farming in the country, should ...
Viewpoint: A world without pollinators? Don’t fall for ‘lurid tales of bee Armageddon’
A torrent of media stories from 2013-2014 presented frightening tales of “unprecedented” colony collapse disorder (CCD) among honeybees, conjuring up ...
