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.
Next glyphosate fight? Colombian farmers challenge government plan to reinstate aerial coca crop spraying
Pedro Arenas is afraid that they'll take flight again. "I expect it could be within the next months," he says ...
Center for Food Safety sues USDA to block organic certification of soil-free hydroponic crops
Federal Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler .... will be reviewing USDA’s decision to permit the “indoor agricultural evolution” known as hydroponics ...
Rapid genome sequencing streamlines efforts to safeguard global food supply against salmonella
Researchers from Cornell University, the Mars Global Food Safety Center in Beijing, and the University of Georgia have developed a ...
Plant-based food tops $5 billion in retail sales as consumer demand for ‘sustainable’ products booms
New data released by The Good Food Institute (GFI) and the Plant Based Foods Association shows U.S. retail sales of ...
Kenya picks 1,000 farmers to grow GMO cotton
The Kenyan government has identified 1,000 farmers who will receive the country’s first genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds. The farmers ...
EU neonic insecticide ban cut UK canola production from 1.8 million acres to 1.3 million annually
In 2012, U.K. farmers seeded about 1.8 million acres of oilseed rape [canola]. But over the last eight years, acreage ...
Judge cancels second federal glyphosate-cancer trial to aid settlement talks between Bayer, plaintiffs
In an order on [March 5], U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria vacated the March 23 trial date for the second ...
Plant-based meat industry start-up Daring targeting chicken-free ‘chicken’, the world’s favorite protein
Daring is an imitation chicken, which replicates the taste and texture of the familiar fowl, and which is targeted specifically ...
Wild wheat gene could boost drought tolerance and grain size of commercialized crop varieties
In new research published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, Harkamal Walia, associate professor and Heuermann Chair of Agronomy and Horticulture at Nebraska, and colleagues ...
Viewpoint: ‘GMOs cause cancer’ and 17 other persistent health myths debunked
Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. Eating eggs gives you heart disease. Coffee stunts your growth. No, no and no again ...
Sustainability benefits of biotech may prompt Millennials, Gen Z to embrace GMOs and gene editing
Millennials and Generation Z are influencing the ever-evolving clean label category, and they might be willing to consider biotechnology/genetic modification ...
Top European science council demands ‘radical’ GMO regulatory reform
A top European science council calling is demanding a “radical reform of the legal framework” that regulates genetically modified organisms ...
El Pollo Loco launches plant-based menu made from in-house, ‘non-GMO’ vegan chicken
El Pollo Loco is now offering plant-based chicken systemwide through its new Chickenless Pollo Taco and Burrito menu items, according ...
EPA appears likely to re-approve drift-prone dicamba herbicides with added restrictions
When the U.S. EPA reregistered dicamba soybean herbicides for use on Xtend soybeans in 2018, labels were effective for two ...
Will legal ‘assault’ on Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller in US, EU threaten Africa’s access to glyphosate?
A growing assault against glyphosate in the U.S. and Europe is threatening the future of the widely used weed killer ...
Just-lifted South Australia GMO crop ban could be restored, as Green party vows support for ‘more natural’ food
A BAN on genetically-modified crops in South Australia has been lifted fewer than 24 hours after it was enforced – ...
Soybean damage caused by Bayer’s drift-prone dicamba herbicide spurs farmers to use competing GMO seeds, weedkillers
Bayer AG’s takeover of Monsanto has been beset by problems, and now a decades-long dominance of the $4 billion U.S ...
Vegan burgers: How Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat mimic the texture, appearance and flavor of beef
Texture, appearance and flavor: These are the elements of meat that the new vegan alternatives from Impossible Foods and Beyond ...
Full-fat dairy not linked to childhood obesity, studies show, raising questions about US dietary guidelines
There's little scientific evidence behind recommendations by US health organizations that kids should stop eating full-fat dairy after the age ...
France introduces banana resistant to black Sigatoka—deadly disease that can cut fruit yields 50%
A new variety of banana that is resistant to black Sigatoka and can be produced using organic and agro-ecological production ...
New study shows CRISPR can be applied to produce biofortified rice
A team of California plant scientists has taken a CRISPR-Cas9 approach to develop more nutritious varieties of rice. Their research, ...
Agricultural effects of Coronavirus: China’s industry slowdown threatens US access to pesticides and fertilizers
The ripple effect of the Coronavirus in China is being reported in the supply of active ingredients and fertilizers. Exactly ...
South Australian government vows to fight bill reinstating ‘archaic’ GMO crop moratorium
The Marshall Liberal Government will stand firm in its support for South Australian grain growers’ campaign to enjoy the same ...
UK may lift ban on GMO-derived foods to secure post-Brexit trade deal with US
Genetically modified foods from America could end up on British supermarket shelves as part of a US trade deal. Ministers ...
Impossible Foods cuts prices 15% as new competitors enter plant-based meat market
Makers of plant-based meat alternatives are cutting prices, as startups compete with food-industry giants for slices of the rapidly growing ...
China develops African swine fever vaccine to curb disease that’s nearly halved its pork production
China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, the country’s top research body on animal diseases, said it developed an African swine fever ...
Trump urges Colombia to restart aerial glyphosate weedkiller spraying to wipe out coca crops
Colombia will have to restart aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate in order to destroy crops of coca, the chief ...
