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.
Eliminating dairy cows would reduce US greenhouse gas emissions just 0.7 percent while cutting essential nutrient supply, study finds
A commonly suggested solution to reduce greenhouse gas output has been to reduce or eliminate [the dairy] industry in favor ...
Mexican farmers and scientists speak out against government’s anti-biotech agenda
The Mexican government’s nonstop attacks on genetically modified (GM) crops — resulting most recently in a ban on GM maize ...
UK launches consultation that could roll back restrictive CRISPR crop rules, unlock ‘substantial benefits’
In one of its first post-Brexit moves, England has launched a consultation on gene editing in a bid to unlock ...
We’ll all be vegans by 2050? How GM microbes and alternative proteins are changing our diets
The plant-based meat market is predicted to grow from $3.6 billion in 2020 to $4.2 billion by 2021. And by 2040, 60 ...
RNA technology gave us a COVID vaccine. It could also help control plant pests without insecticides
With the development of Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, RNA technology has been dominating the news cycle. … A decade ago, ...
‘Like putting 5 locks on a door’: Wheat with multiple rust resistance genes could protect vital staple crop
[R]esearchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, led an international effort to develop wheats with a stronger and potentially more ...
Peru extends GMO crop cultivation ban for 15 years, after months of intense debate
The president of the Congress of the Republic [of Peru], Mirtha Vásquez, signed the enactment of the 15-year extension of ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate and cancer—How ideology and bad science turned a safe herbicide into a carcinogen
Glyphosate has long been considered as an herbicide with no unacceptable health risk. In 2015, its classification as "probably carcinogenic" ...
FDA aims to combat GMO misinformation with crop biotech high-school curriculum
Though a new curriculum guide offers high school teachers helpful tools for navigating the complexities of crop biotechnology and a ...
Go vegan to save the planet? No-meat diet won’t stop climate change, environmental scientists say
People in industrialized regions like the United States of America or Europe are generally urged to eat less meat and ...
USDA bioengineered food labels are coming in 2021. Will they change consumer behavior?
Four years after the thunder in Congress over labeling foods made with GMO ingredients, the deadline for compliance with the ...
US grew 13 million pounds of genetically modified apples in 2020, but most fruit growers still resist growing biotech crops
[G]rape and nut growers appear to have sustained a particularly rough 2020. But that was probably due at least as ...
We might be able to send GMOs to other planets. But is it a good idea?
First: Could we populate another planet with genetically modified organisms? Second: Should we? … Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Professor of Planetary Habitability and Astrobiology ...
Burger tax? Study says we should raise meat prices to cut greenhouse gas emissions
As the planet continues to warm, researchers continue working to better understand the sources of greenhouse emissions. In this new effort, ...
USDA: ‘Fear mongering’ keeps EU scared of growing GMOs, while it relies on US biotech grain imports
Commercial cultivation of GE crops in the EU is limited to one percent of the EU’s total corn area (102 ...
Drought-tolerant GM corn comes with added, unexpected benefit—pest resistance
Water stress arising from drought conditions can trigger outbreaks of bark beetles, wood borers, and sap feeders like spider mites ...
GM trees that suck up more CO2 could help stem growing threat of climate change
In order to fight the growing threat of global climate change, scientists are now suggesting that we genetically modify trees ...
Viewpoint: GMO ‘opposition based on emotion and dogma must be stopped’
Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have featured heavily in this presidential campaign and are without question two of the ...
Mexico’s GM corn ban could ‘imperil’ nation’s food chain, farm groups warn
Mexico will “revoke and refrain from granting permits for the release of genetically modified corn seeds into the environment,” stated ...
GM, insect resistant Bt cotton and 11 billion sterile moths eliminated pink bollworm from the US and Mexico
Invasive organisms pose a global threat and are exceptionally difficult to eradicate after they become abundant in their new habitats ...
‘Like finding missing puzzle pieces’: Sequenced genome of 15 wheat varieties could speed search for heartier crops
[Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have] sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programmes around the world ...
Viewpoint: ‘Celebrate pesticides!’ Why farmers should defend technology that produces our abundant food supply
Social media is really one of the best ways to reach people nowadays. As much as we might hate to ...
‘Proportionate risk’: Outgoing Secretary Perdue proposes USDA streamlining, takeover of animal biotechnology regulations
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a significant step in modernizing regulations of agricultural animals modified or produced by genetic ...
‘Circular economy’: Turning waste into reusable products makes food and energy production more sustainable
We need to find a way to reduce waste, and the answer could be moving to a circular economy, which ...
European Commission may greenlight GM crop imports rejected by EU Parliament
The EU Parliament has again spoken out against the approval of a number of genetically modified plant species. MEPs in ...
Calyxt gene-edited, heart-healthy soybeans help alleviate America’s biggest soy shortage in years
[Calyxt Inc has] agreed to sell all the gene-edited soybean grains it produced in 2020 to agricultural merchant Archer Daniels ...
Why grow GMOs? A farmer explains 4 environmental benefits of crop biotechnology
Unfortunately, biotechnology has taken quite a beating in public perception. We’ve seen activists’ smear campaigns disseminating misinformation. The most ridiculous ...
