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.
High-yielding sweet potato that fights vitamin A deficiency could be Ghana’s first gene-edited crop
Research on Ghana’s first gene-edited crop — a high-yielding sweet potato with increased beta carotone content — is under way ...
Cuba establishes expert commission to ensure safe, sustainable use of GM crops
The National Commission for the Use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Cuban agriculture was established. The head of CITMA ...
Spray-on viral treatment can ‘fine-tune’ crops as they grow, without genetic engineering
[W]ith climate change in action across the globe, forecasting temperature and rainfall is becoming more challenging. Hence during the crop ...
China announces birth of first gene-edited sheep as country aims to boost domestic meat production
[T]he world's first myostatin gene (MSTN) edited Huyang sheep was born in China, with the technology used to boost the ...
EU’s refusal to permit GMO crops led to millions of tons of additional CO2, scientists reveal
Europe’s refusal to permit its farmers to cultivate genetically engineered (GE) crops led to the avoidable emission of millions of ...
Developing countries grow more GM crops than their industrial counterparts
Developing countries continued to plant more biotech crops in 2019, according to the ISAAA report on the Global Status of Commercialized ...
GMOs and the environment: ‘No significant difference’ and no unintended gene transfer in GM rice compared to conventional varieties, study shows
In this research, we analyzed the potential for weediness, unintended gene transfer, and viability in the natural environment for risk ...
Europe regulates gene-edited crops as GMOs. Will it ever have the tools to detect them?
To enforce GMO restrictions, EU member states first need a way to detect GMOs. So in 2002, the EU set ...
Farmer lawsuits could block Mexico’s proposed glyphosate weedkiller and GMO crop bans
The Mexican government’s plan to stop importing genetically modified (GMO) corn as well as the widely-used herbicide glyphosate will likely ...
CRISPR and climate change: Philippines sees crop gene editing as powerful ally in fight against global warming
[Philippines Department of Science and Technology Secretary Fortunado de la Peña has] underscored the importance of [new breeding techniques, or] ...
Demand for high-quality food, innovative medicine expands global market for CRISPR gene editing
The global CRISPR gene editing market was valued at $846.2 million in 2019 and is projected to reach $10,825.1 million ...
First lab-grown steak is here. Will lack of regulation stymie its race to the market?
Frequently plant-based products have been patties or processed nuggets — “everyday” foods easier for companies to produce — that aim ...
Natural chemical found in Australian finger lime might protect orange groves from deadly citrus greening disease
Huanglongbing, HLB, or citrus greening has multiple names, but one ultimate result: bitter and worthless citrus fruits. It has wiped ...
Peanut butter saved? Heat-tolerant peanuts may stave off yield-cutting impacts of climate change
[A] group of researchers led by Clemson University Plant and Environmental Sciences assistant professor Sruthi Narayanan is working to develop ...
Saving Africa’s agroecological food baskets from the agroecology movement
As agroecology activism increases within the global food system, many African communities involved in agriculture and food production, as well ...
Glyphosate exit: Germany could ban weedkiller by 2024 to ‘preserve clean habitats for insects’
Farmers in Germany will have to gradually reduce their use of glyphosate and stop using it completely from 2024 in ...
No access to GM, insect-resistant eggplant costs the Philippines $634 million annually
[Philippine eggplant crops suffer] tremendous damage from the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB), its major pest. The Bt eggplant ...
Could Ethiopia make or break the future of GM crops in Africa?
I have followed with interest the recent controversy around plantings of transgenic crops in Ethiopia. Until 2015, the country took ...
US consumers still prefer beef to plant-based meat on nutrition and taste, survey shows
[A] 79-page report - commissioned by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board and written by Glynn Tonsor and Ted ...
Higher canola yields without additional farmland: Gene editing could make it happen
What if it were possible to modify the height and shape of canola, so more plants could be grown in ...
Glyphosate-tolerant sugarbeet: Case study of lower CO2 emissions, higher yields with GM crops
Western Sugar Cooperative is a co-op of beet producers who mainly farm in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. [Chief scientist ...
Sociologists’ critical theory deconstruction of GMO Bt cotton ‘success narrative’ in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s 2008 Bt cotton adoption was Africa’s largest genetically modified (GM) crop introduction principally for small farmers, and became ...
‘Vitaminized potatoes’: Guatemala poised to begin distributing GM, pest-resistant spuds with more vitamin C, iron and zinc
[Guatemalan] President Alejandro Giammattei announced that the distribution of seeds and planting of "vitaminized potatoes" will begin, which are being ...
GM Golden Rice could provide 30% to 50% of daily vitamin A needed to combat deadly nutrient deficiency, study shows
A team of scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and Bangladesh Rice Research ...
Viewpoint: Farms today are massive—but it’s not because they’re ‘greedy factory farms’
In 1936, there were 142,000 farms in Saskatchewan, which was the largest number this [Canadian] province had ever seen – ...
‘Vocal anti-GM campaigner’: Organic farmers should abandon opposition to gene editing
The organic sector has been vehemently opposed to genetic technologies in the past, but Alex Smith, vocal anti-GM campaigner and ...
Milk without cows: Thanks to fermentation, future dairy products might originate in a lab
The industrial dairy industry is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the world. In a study ...
