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.
Podcast: CRISPR might save the banana from deadly disease. Will consumers get behind the technology?
Cavendish bananas seem to be abundant in grocery stores, but a fungus has been threatening its existence for years, and ...
Vancouver, Toronto continue to battle invasive weeds with Roundup after Health Canada rejects glyphosate-cancer link
The City of Vancouver uses the controversial Roundup herbicide. More than 42,700 Americans sued its maker, Monsanto-Bayer. They say that ...
Fifth US retailer announces plan to ‘phase out’ neonic pesticides from supply chain
Another food retailer has announced a plan to minimize its use of pesticides in a bid to help protect pollinators, ...
Severe drought threatens food security in sub–Saharan Africa
The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly severe in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions of people are facing severe food ...
Study claiming neonic pesticides harm wild birds has no relevance to real-world conditions, plant geneticist argues
Capturing wild birds and force-feeding 3-10% of a lethal dose (of anything) is cruel. It’s not surprising birds would become ...
Judge dismisses false advertising lawsuit against Panera over products containing glyphosate residues
A putative class action alleging that Panera LLC’s labeling and marketing of its food products as “clean” or “100% clean” ...
Sterile GMO grass could provide sustainable biofuel, cut water use on golf courses
As representatives from agri-chemical and seed companies seek ways to feed a world population that is projected to balloon during ...
Viewpoint: Anti-pesticide Environmental Working Group spreads chemophobia at taxpayer expense
.... It may sound crazy, but the federal government funds a network of activists that spew tons of needlessly alarming ...
Bayer says glyphosate-cancer legal settlement should cap future liability, as number of lawsuits surges past 40,000
Already reeling from an avalanche of lawsuits, German agriculture and healthcare giant Bayer AG said on [October 30] the number ...
Genetic tweak doubles yields of sorghum, globally important food source, in new study
Plant scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), in their search for solutions to ...
Danone, General Mills to Congress: USDA investment in carbon sequestration on farms can help mitigate looming ‘climate crisis’
CLIMATE CRISIS COMMITTEE LOOKS FOR AG SOLUTIONS: Congress took a rare dive into the nexus of climate change and agriculture ...
CRISPR-edited wheat cuts immune response in ‘gluten-sensitive’ patients by 85%, new study shows
Approximately one person in 100 has celiac disease, which means for them eating gluten is risking diarrhea, vomiting, malnutrition, and ...
CRISPR immunizes rice, staple crop consumed by billions, against devastating bacterial infection
Genome editing has made one of the world’s most important crops resistant to a devastating bacterial infection. ... The researchers ...
78% of soybean, 76% of cotton grown globally in 2018 were GMO, as farmers continued adopting biotech crops
The four major biotech crops — soybeans, maize, cotton, and canola — were the most adopted biotech crops by 26 ...
Viewpoint: New study provides clear evidence of substantial insect biomass and biodiversity losses
There are certain times in life .... when we think that we know something but the evidence is less than ...
EPA, USDA, FDA launch food-waste collaboration to help ‘build sustainable agricultural’ system
On October 30, 2019 the leaders of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Department ...
Glyphosate-cancer lawsuit tally doubles to 42,700, as settlement talks attract more plaintiffs, Bayer says
Germany’s Bayer is now facing 42,700 U.S. plaintiffs blaming its glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer, more than twice the tally ...
We need pollinators to grow food in space, but bees may not survive harsh extraterrestrial environment, study shows
One of the world’s newest space analogs is inside a white ziggurat on top of a former nuclear bunker in ...
Robot-powered plant science helps grape growers predict yields, detect pest threats
For grape growers, accurately predicting each season’s yield is key to a successful harvest. Underpredict, and you won’t have enough ...
Viewpoint: Why agroecology alone won’t boost sustainable farming in the developing world
Global farmers must not only feed ten billion people by 2050 but do so while lowering agricultural greenhouse gas emissions ...
Environmental Working Group slams joint EPA-PETA effort to end pesticide testing on animals
Leaders from the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals flanked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler ...
Fifth farmer sentenced in $142 million fraudulent organic grain scheme, largest in US history
A Missouri farmer who played a role in the largest organic grain fraud scheme in U.S. history has been sentenced ...
Rat-munching monkeys could protect palm oil, most widely consumed vegetable oil, from rodents
Found as an ingredient in many processed and packaged foods, palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil. Now, ...
Soil fungi turn struggling wheat into ‘climate-smart’ crop with boosted nutrient uptake in new study
Introducing fungi to wheat boosted their uptake of key nutrients and could lead to new, 'climate smart' varieties of crops, ...
Mennonite family shuns gadgets but grows GMO corn
How many days could you live without your cell phone, laptop or favorite communications tool? Modern technology has become such ...
The Beepocalypse that wasn’t? Colony collapse disorder had ‘very small’ effects on commercial pollinators, study finds
Though colony collapse disorder has generated a great deal of concern, the phenomenon has had “very small effects” on commercial ...
Australian farmer: Anti-glyphosate activists resemble ‘climate deniers’ in their assault on mainstream science
The global war on glyphosate has arrived in Australia. Our media has been closely following media coverage of the recent ...
