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.
Australia’s stingless bees: Beekeepers’ best defense against deadly varroa mite?
Australia’s native stingless bees could be a key line of defense for the nation’s horticulture industry against the dangerous bee ...
CRISPR could help immunize Africa’s staple crop sorghum against destructive witchweed parasite
Sorghum crops in areas where the agricultural parasite striga, also known as witchweed, is common are more likely to have ...
Podcast: ‘There’s no safe level of pesticides’? ‘Don’t eat what you can’t pronounce’? Food Science Babe takes on popular nutrition tropes
“Don’t eat what you can’t pronounce… Synthetic chemicals are more dangerous than natural chemicals… Chemicals in food are killing us… ...
GMO cotton, corn have increased farmer incomes in Colombia more than $300 million since 2003
This study assesses the economic and environmental impacts that have arisen from the adoption and use of genetically modified (GM) ...
Scientists call for innovation in fight against destructive locust pests
Cautioning the current dependence on chemical pesticides is harming the environment, scientists are calling for innovation, including the use of ...
Insect extinctions happen every day, studies suggest, threatening food security and ecosystem functions
Humanity is pushing many ecosystems beyond recovery. As a consequence, unquantified and unquantifiable insect extinctions are happening every day. Two ...
Bayer appeals last year’s $86 million California Monsanto Roundup glyphosate-cancer trial verdict
Bayer AG has asked a California appeals court to overturn an $86 million verdict that found it was responsible for ...
GMO ‘fusion protein’ technology could expand genetic diversity in food crops, increasing farm sustainability
For many years, the only way to improve characteristics such as yield and nutritional value of crops was through selective ...
Biotech sugar substitute that improves gut health could be coming soon
Cuba's Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) announced it has developed a biotech sweetener that the country can sell ...
How synthetic biology in farming could slow climate change: ‘Supercharged’ photosynthesis, increased CO2 storage and more are in the works
Efforts to improve the genetics of food crops are as old as agriculture .... but synthetic biology techniques, including CRISPR-Cas9 ...
Palm trees grown from 2,000-year-old date seeds reinforce existence of ancient Judea’s ‘sophisticated’ crop domestication culture
In ancient times, the region of Judea was known for its plump, delicious dates, which delighted the palates of classical ...
As many as 85,000 glyphosate-cancer lawsuits ‘significantly’ closer to settlement after federal trials suspended
Bayer AG’s federal court cases in the U.S. about the Roundup weedkiller have been pushed back at the request of ...
French court rules sweet grapefruit, barley, wheat and 2500 crops, developed by mutagenizing seeds with toxic chemicals or gamma rays yet often sold as organic, are GMO, must be labeled and cultivation banned
Mutagenesis is a process where new strains of food and products are created using chemicals and radiation in the lab ...
Consumers who reject CRISPR fear that gene-edited crops cause allergies and only benefit food companies, survey shows
Recent gene editing technologies advances, such as CRISPR/Cas9, will continue to shape the future of agriculture and genetically engineered crops ...
GMO corn that tolerates temperature drops could help farmers protect crop yields
Around the world, each person eats an average of 70 pounds of the grain each year, with even more grown ...
Technology breeds sustainability on Brazilian family farm
As Brazilian farmer and attorney Henrique Gustavo Fiorese sees it, the future of agriculture depends on technology and sustainability.Though either ...
Dicamba trial: Bayer contends peach farm damage occurred before drift-prone Monsanto herbicide hit the market
In all-day testimony on the eighth day of the trial, [farmer Bill] Bader said as long as dicamba is sprayed ...
Video: Impossible Foods hits back at Super Bowl ad alleging plant-based beef contains laxative
The Center for Consumer Freedom ran a Super Bowl commercial alleging that plant-based meat alternatives are not as healthy as ...
Bumblebees disappearing at rates ‘consistent with mass extinction’ as climate changes
When you were young, were you the type of child who would scour open fields looking for bumble bees? Today, ...
Former holistic nutritionist explains why she demonized GMOs—and how science changed her mind
For years, I was deeply embedded in the wellness world in my own life. Then I decided to work in ...
Consumer curiosity fuels popularity of GMO Impossible Burger and other plant-based meats, survey shows
The top reason why consumers decided to eat plant-based meat alternatives is because they like to try new foods, according ...
‘Maladapted’ EU regulation hinders non-toxic biopesticide development, despite growing farmer demand
Biological pesticides are rapidly gaining attention as a sustainable and viable environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. However, they are ...
Video: Filipino farmers ‘clamor’ for access to GMO insect-resistant Bt eggplant
SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center (SEARCA BIC) releases The Bt Eggplant Story, a new video series that documents the development of Bt ...
Dicamba on trial: Peach farmer testifies Monsanto knew its drift-prone herbicide would damage his 1,000-acre operation
Since 1970, Bill Bader has worked on peach farms in Dunklin County, Missouri, just north of the Arkansas border. Bader ...
Diet wars: Heavy meat consumption carries ‘small but increased’ cardiovascular disease risk, study finds
[In October 2019], the Annals of Internal Medicine published a controversial report that encouraged people not to worry about the ...
GMO herbicide-tolerant canola increased Canadian farm profits $233 million, saved consumers $26 million
Many think that the developers of new technologies are the ones who gain virtually all of the benefits, with consumers ...
Low-calorie sweeteners ‘poison’ for expecting mothers? Epidemiologist says that’s unlikely
News sources around the globe have been calling out warnings about a new study that appears to have shown that ...
