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.
Neophobia: The psychological barrier that inspires knee-jerk rejection of GMOs and other food technology
Psychologist Michael Siegrist and nutrition scientist Christina Hartmann have compiled research on the psychological and societal factors that influence consumer ...
US sugar industry flips the GMO script, hyping eco-benefits of glyphosate-tolerant crops
[The US] sugar beet industry is flipping the narrative, capitalizing on what was once its Achilles heel — its universal ...
Thank bugs for red velvet cake? How Cochineal insects became a sustainable source of food dye
A surprising amount of the food we consume contains various compounds to add color. Marshmallows look white, but they contain ...
AquaBounty identifies Kentucky location as possible site for 10,000 metric ton GMO salmon farm
[Aquabounty] announced that it has identified Mayfield, Kentucky as the potential location for its planned large-scale farm for the Company’s ...
GMOs coming to Zimbabwe? Agriculture minister says climate change has made farm technology a necessity
While farmers are gripped with the conservation farming technique that is fronted by [Zimbabwe's] government and other private organizations through ...
Picking up where GMOs left off: CRISPR leads the way to ‘greener’ food production in the 21st century
Genome editing may be one of the solutions to address climate change. A September 2020 report by the Information Technology ...
EU opposition to GM crops encourages hunger in developing nations, US trade official warns
A senior U.S. official blasted EU plans for greener farming on [October 27], accusing Brussels of risking worldwide starvation by ...
EPA backs Bayer appeal in glyphosate-cancer case, arguing juries shouldn’t override expert scientific judgments
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is backing the Monsanto Co.’s claim that federal law should have pre-empted a lawsuit alleging ...
Philippines earns an extra $972.6 million over 16 years of growing GM crops
Renowned economist Graham Brookes presented the global economic and environmental impacts of biotech crops from 1996 to 2018 for Thai ...
From disease-resistant bananas to biofortified potatoes, gene editing could make our food more plentiful and nutritious
Molecular biologists at multiple CGIAR [Consortium of International Agricultural Research] centers shared information about gene editing work underway at the ...
EPA re-registers drift-prone dicamba weedkiller, relieving some farmers and frustrating others who fear crop damage
Farmers can continue to use dicamba for five years, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said [October 27], offering certainty to cotton ...
GM insect-resistant Bt cowpea could add $638 million to Nigeria’s economy over 6 years
The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), a biotechnology informative platform, says Nigeria could rake in 638 million dollars in ...
GMOs unnatural? So are strawberries, Brussels sprouts and many other popular foods
By definition, a genetically modified organism is an organism produced through the production of heritable improvements in plants or animals ...
Why are food allergies on the rise, and what can we do about it?
More of the population has food allergies than ever before – and around the world, they are sending more and ...
Epigenetic breeding could yield enhanced crops—and end run public’s fear of ‘GMOs’
Novel grafted plants — consisting of rootstock epigenetically modified to “believe” it has been under stress — joined to an ...
Bayer urges court to overturn $20M glyphosate-cancer verdict, objecting to ‘unreliable expert testimony’
Roundup manufacturer Monsanto urged three Ninth Circuit judges on [Ocotber 23] to overturn a jury’s verdict finding the weed killer ...
‘Science diplomacy’: What the Cold War can teach Africa about battling hunger with GM crops
It can be said the main problems facing the world are international in nature. No country can stand up today ...
How do you make ice cream without animals? Train fungi to ‘act like cows’
The food company Perfect Day has found a way to replicate whey—a milk protein that’s partially responsible for dairy’s creamy ...
Engineering soil bacteria could help develop enhanced, ‘non-GMO’ crops for Europe
Plant breeding – a method of selecting plants from a group that have the desired properties – is central to ...
CRISPR could help protect Atlantic salmon from sea lice, reducing need for harsh chemical treatments
Researchers at Norwegian institute Nofima are investigating whether gene editing could provide an answer to the problem of sea lice ...
5 steps African governments should take to keep food systems intact when the next pandemic hits
COVID-19 has hit world economies hard, and the agricultural sector is no exception. Restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of ...
Glyphosate on trial: California Supreme Court rejects request from Bayer to review first Roundup-cancer verdict
Bayer AG’s Monsanto Co. lost a bid for the California Supreme Court to review the first multimillion-dollar jury award to ...
Replacing pesticides: Expected chlorpyrifos ban spurs development of more sustainable insecticides
A broad-spectrum insecticide that kills all arthropods in its path, chlorpyrifos was used for decades throughout the US .... But ...
GM Impossible Burger hits 200 grocery stories in Asia, as effort to ‘replace’ meat moves forward
[Impossible Foods'] flagship imitation beef product went on sale in 200 supermarkets across Hong Kong and Singapore on Tuesday. Impossible's ...
Video: GM insect-resistant cotton boosted India’s crop yields 29% and farmer incomes $24.31 billion
Insect-resistant (IR) cotton has impacted the lives of Indian farmers since it was introduced in 2002. This is according to ...
Drought, cropland expansion push Great Plains toward ‘Dust Bowl 2.0,’ climate scientists say
Earlier [in October], a storm front swept across the Great Plains of the United States, plowing up a wall of ...
Plant-based burgers….now milk? Impossible Foods aims to make realistic dairy alternative without cows
.... Impossible Foods, makers of the Impossible Burger and other plant-based meat alternatives, are working on another food replacement that ...
