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.
Biofortified GM crops may be a long-term solution to global micronutrient deficiencies
Over two billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies due to insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals. Poor sections of ...
Rewilding farmland can protect biodiversity and sequester carbon, new study finds
Restoring ecosystems on just 15 percent of the world’s current farmland could spare 60 percent of the species expected to ...
Ending hunger: Researchers are giving smallholder farmers the wrong advice, study claims
How can research help to end hunger? One way to answer this question is to assess published research on hunger, ...
Insect-resistant GM eggplant could boost Philippines’ crop yields 192%, reduce pesticide use 48%
Eggplant is an economically important vegetable in the Philippines, where its production accounts for nearly one-third of the total volume ...
Percy Schmeiser, farmer made famous by legal battle with Monsanto, dies at 89
Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan farmer who became famous during his legal battle with biotech giant Monsanto, has died. John Schmeiser ...
Bayer, BASF claim new chemical mixed with drift-prone dicamba weedkiller can minimize off-target damage
Chemical makers Bayer AG and BASF are pushing to keep a controversial weedkiller on the market after a federal court ...
Viewpoint: Activists aim to block GM chestnut tree by hyping potential risks and ignoring real benefits
For more than 30 years, the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) has been engaged in a privately financed program .... to produce ...
EU’s only cultivated GM crop, insect-resistant Bt corn, poses no risk to humans or the environment, study finds
Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA assessed the 2018 post‐market environmental monitoring (PMEM) report on the cultivation ...
Judge dismisses lawsuit alleging that ‘natural’ apple juice shouldn’t contain trace pesticides
On October 6, 2020, a California judge dismissed an amended complaint alleging that apple juice and applesauce products sold by ...
Del Monte launches GM pineapple with pink flesh and sweeter flavor, 15 years in the making
The rosy pineapple is now available nationwide for purchase online in its own individual box at pinkglowpineapple.com, but it doesn’t ...
Philippines poised to embrace gene-edited animals? Lawmakers debate rules for ‘safe’ use of modern biotech
Masbate Rep. Elisa “Olga” Kho has cited the importance of animal biotechnology in improving the health and welfare of animals ...
Nitrogen fertilizers are jeopardizing climate goals, new study finds
The expanding use of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture is pushing nitrous oxide emissions to levels that jeopardize climate goals and ...
European countries can ban pesticides even if approved by EU, continent’s highest court rules
Europe’s highest court [European Court of Justice, ECJ] has concluded that member states have the right to ban pesticides even ...
‘Farmers aren’t stupid.’ If ‘regenerative agriculture’ worked, they’d embrace it, New Zealand dairy scientist says
This is a call to make it clear that what is being suggested by environmentalists will limit our ability to ...
Plant-breeding tool leaps major hurdle to enhancing more crops with CRISPR gene editing
Researchers know how to make precise genetic changes within the genomes of crops, but the transformed cells often refuse to ...
Viewpoint: We have a food-waste problem, but cutting meat consumption won’t solve it
Most commercial produce is bought and discarded within two days. It can't even be given to food shelters or homeless ...
France enacts more glyphosate weedkiller restrictions as it moves toward full ‘phase out’ by 2021
France’s health and environment agency announced restrictions on weedkiller glyphosate in farming, but stopped short of a full ban in ...
Ethiopia faces confluence of crises: Locust outbreaks, flooding and COVID-fueled food shortages
COVID-19, flooding and the locusts outbreak are creating a humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia with many people unable to meet their ...
Europe’s pro-organic ‘green deal’ threatens US farmers who sustainably grow GM crops, USDA claims
Washington could complain to the World Trade Organization if the European Union goes ahead with a farming strategy that it ...
GM crops can slash Africa’s pesticide use: Insect-resistant cowpea field trial shows farmers how
A team of scientists developing Bt Cowpea at CSIR-SARI organized a field day at its confined field trial site in ...
France poised to suspend neonics pesticide ban to help farmers, over objections from Greenpeace
French lawmakers on Tuesday (6 October) approved a draft bill allowing sugar beet growers to use pesticides that are banned ...
Biotech milestone: Argentina could be first nation to approve GM drought-tolerant wheat
The Argentine government will approve drought-tolerant transgenic wheat variety HB4 from biotechnology company Bioceres, according to an official resolution to ...
Regulate all chemicals in food? Two experts say that’s an ‘absurd (and impossible) exercise’
A recent CNN article about the FDA oversight of chemicals in foods is puzzling. Author Sandee LaMotte regurgitates a ludicrous demand by ...
CRISPR-edited poplar trees could cut carbon emissions during paper production
Researchers led by prof. Wout Boerjan (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology) have discovered a way to stably finetune the ...
Goodbye gin and tonics? Invasive plant disease threatens juniper berries used to make gin
The gin industry, which is worth £3.2bn to the UK economy, has the potential to be devastated by an invasive ...
Fraud investigation reveals 3-continent-wide organic fruit trading ‘scam’
In January 2017, Chilean customs inspectors acted on a tip from a whistleblower: The country's prized crop of raspberries was ...
Generation Z accepts GMOs, but 72% not ready to eat lab-grown meat, survey shows
It wasn’t long ago that a U.S.-based study found that 77 percent of Generation Z are just fine with food ...
