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.
New bacteria-based bioherbicide controls glyphosate-resistant weeds in field trials
Marrone Bio Innovations [November 12] .... announced positive results for the 2019 field trials for its novel bioherbicide, known as ...
Bangladesh could approve GMO Golden Rice in November 2019—after 10-year delay caused by regulation, activism
By [November 15], Bangladesh’s agriculture minister is expected to announce the approval of “golden rice" for sale and use, making ...
Manipulating sugar production in plant leaves could boost photosynthesis, crop yields
Plants make sugars to form leaves to grow and produce grains and fruits through the process of photosynthesis, but sugar ...
Mandatory calorie counts on fast-food menus have little impact on customer purchases, latest study finds
As of May last year, all American restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets have been legally obliged to provide calorie ...
Efforts to block CRISPR crop cultivation in Australia unlikely to gain political support, parliament member says
A Senate bid to overturn the lack of regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms is unlikely to achieve anything. The Greens ...
Can TELA maize solve the acute food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa?
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most food-insecure region in the world, with an estimated 237 million throughout the region suffering from ...
Foodborne illnesses strike almost 48 million Americans annually. Do we need better food safety testing?
In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 47.8 million illnesses, more than 127,000 hospitalizations and 3,000-plus deaths attributed to ...
Winter honeybee losses cut in half since 2012 as beekeepers battle deadly varroa mite
It looks as though the period of alarmingly high winter mortality in honeybees is over. And a long-term study by ...
‘Tuning’ plant flowering signals with CRISPR could yield heartier crops suited to harsh environments
Increasing human populations demand more productive agriculture, which in turn relies on crop plants adjusted for high-yield systems. [G]enetic tuning ...
Commonly used pesticide 1,3-D has smaller impact on soil microbes than tillage, cover crops or irrigation, study shows
It started with curiosity. How does a fumigant, commonly used for nematode management in potato cropping systems, influence soil microbial ...
Video: ‘What will I eat today’ vs. ‘will I eat today?’ – It’s time to trust African scientists (on access to GMO and gene edited crops)
It is time African governments take action ...
Viewpoint: Eating red meat won’t harm you or destroy the environment, and it has some nutritional advantages
We’ve all been steak-shamed before .... According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, red meat consumption has fallen more than ...
Kenya needs to overcome inhibitions about GMOs, official says
Efforts to “put technologies in the hands of farmers that protect against drought and insects cannot be taken lightly.” ...
‘Post-organic produce’: Expanding indoor farming industry aims to make agriculture more sustainable
If you live in the U.S., the last time you ate a salad, the lettuce inside it almost certainly came ...
Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods eye 2020 expansion into China as plant-based meat market approaches $140 billion
Beyond Meat Inc aims to start production in Asia before the end of next year, as it gets closer to ...
DNA sequencing uncovers genes that could yield bigger, sweeter, crispier watermelon
Scientists from Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences took a comprehensive look at the genomes of 414 watermelons representing ...
Researchers want USDA approval to release GMO chestnut tree as part of forest restoration effort
Chestnuts harvested from high branches on a chilly fall morning look typical: they’re marble sized, russet colored and nestled in ...
Steak from protein powder: Next generation of lab-grown foods on the horizon
It may sound like science fiction, but in a few short years the family dinner table may be laden with ...
GMO Golden Rice lauded as one of the most important research projects over the past 50 years
The Golden Rice humanitarian project has been recognized by Project Management Institute (PMI) as one of the Most Influential Projects ...
Neonic pesticides offer negligible benefits to farmers? ‘Nonsense,’ says Iowa soybean grower
Most people would say that life is unpredictable. We have our plans and routines, but there’s no way to tell ...
Meet the ‘flavorists’: Food chemists who make plant-based Beyond, Impossible burgers taste like ‘meat’
Marie Wright dips four long strips of paper, the kind you’d sniff a perfume sample from in Sephora, into bottles ...
Microbes living in plant roots fight off fungal infection, cutting need for pesticides, study shows
Micro-organisms living inside plant roots team up to boost the plant's growth and tolerance to stress. An international research team ...
Video: ‘If I don’t farm, we won’t eat’: Kenyan farmer illustrates the impact of crop disease in Africa
Steven Oruko Kasamani is a smallholder farmer in Mayoni, Kenya, growing corn, soybean, kale and tomato to support a family ...
‘Artificial leaf’ converts CO2 into biofuel, potential new strategy in battle to slow climate change
Scientists have created an “artificial leaf” to fight climate change by inexpensively converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into a useful ...
Single genetic tweak in GMO corn boosts yields 10%—other crops could be improved, too
Supporters of genetic engineering have long promised it will help meet the world’s growing demand for food. But despite the ...
Microsoft previews ‘data-driven’ farming platform as solution to global food demand boom
The global population is expected to increase by 2.2 billion by 2050, and the world’s farmers will have to grow ...
Farmers know switch to organic means lower yields, but expect price premium to make up for losses
For decades, the conventional wisdom surrounding organic farming has been that it produces crops that are healthier and better for ...
