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.
Farmers, scientists face off against activists as New Hampshire mulls neonic insecticide ban
Farmers, lawn service scientists and educators supplied stinging criticism [October 8] of legislation that activists are pursuing to ban the ...
Bayer faces first glyphosate-cancer lawsuit in Australia as US plaintiff count tops 13,400
An Australian farmer has launched a legal case against Bayer AG’s agricultural chemicals unit Monsanto after being diagnosed with a ...
Will Kenya lift its GMO ban as its agriculture falters?
Scientists should now move with urgency to allow for the continuation of research to support applications of biotechnology ...
Pesticide makers drop challenge to California’s proposed chlorpyrifos insecticide ban
Pesticide manufactures on [September 9] agreed to drop challenges to a proposed California ban on sales of a product linked ...
Viewpoint: New EU Parliament should stop ‘shunning science’ and embrace GMOs
The recently elected European Parliament (EP) should bring with it a ray of hope. Hope that Europe will rise to ...
Viewpoint: Controversial red-meat review challenged ‘deeply entrenched’ nutrition advice with strong science
That last food flip-flop made big headlines last week. It was a “remarkable turnabout,” “jarring,” “stunning.” How, it was asked, ...
USDA scientist: Cover crops check soil degradation—major threat to global food security
Visit the typical almond farm in California and you’ll see rows of trees stretching to the horizon, forming an arching ...
Rapeseed farmers benefit from honeybees more than pesticides, French study finds
For European rapeseed farmers, honey bees buzzing around fields may outweigh the benefits of using pesticides to fight insect damage, ...
Viewpoint: Farmers need more than pro-GMO marketing campaigns to earn public trust
If farmers want to shed the stereotypes foisted on them and talk openly to consumers about the realities of agriculture ...
Fungus-treated tomatoes see 65% higher yields in salty soil, greenhouse study shows
Plant scientists in the Middle East have discovered that adding a desert root fungus, Piriformospora indica—first isolated in India—to the ...
Fear of ‘mighty multinationals’ could spur European glyphosate bans despite evidence, EU food safety official says
The world’s most used herbicide is now more of a political football than a weedkiller. Bernhard Url, the head of ...
Viewpoint: Hectoring Americans to go vegan will do ‘almost nothing’ to combat climate change
Eating meat is bad for the climate—or at least that was one of the main conclusions highlighted in a flood ...
AquaBounty will label GMO salmon before 2022 deadline to promote transparency, company says
AquaBounty is planning to preemptively label its genetically modified salmon in the United States in 2020, a company spokesperson told ...
Trump administration aims to boost farming, medical innovation with streamlined biotech rules
Trump administration officials say they are committed to reducing regulatory barriers to agricultural biotechnology as part of a larger strategy ...
Nigerian farmers, scientists celebrate success of GMO insect-resistant cowpea field trial
Nigerian [bean] farmers have commended the performance of .... Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea .... on the field over the ...
GMO wheat varieties boost crop yields 20-30% in field trial
Studies conducted at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) showed experimental genetically modified (GM) wheat lines [have] the potential to ...
Gene editing could yield heartier, tastier berry varieties
Biting into a fresh, sweet berry might be a simple pleasure, but the berries’ genomes are surprisingly complex. The strawberry ...
What’s xanthan gum? A closer look at that ‘unpronounceable additive’ in so many processed foods
Many people have spied the words “xanthan gum” on the list of ingredients on the back of a food box, ...
Bayer: No glyphosate alternative will ‘magically’ appear in next 5 years
In the next five years, no alternative to glyphosate is going to “magically” appear in the market, Dr Bob Reiter, ...
Do farmers really need neonic insecticides? Study sparks debate over pesticides’ future
New research has found a widely used and increasingly controversial insecticide has “negligible” benefits for commercially grown soybeans. Pesticide makers ...
Biofuel from GMO trees could cut global oil use, but EU biotech rules slow development
The looming threat of climate change is increasing the pressure to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. New technologies to ...
October glyphosate-cancer trial delayed as settlement negotiations continue, Bayer says
A pending U.S. lawsuit over claims related to Bayer’s (BAYGn.DE) glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup has been delayed, the company said on ...
USDA Kansas City relocation halts research on honeybees, organic food and Bayer’s dicamba herbicide
The relocation of two Agriculture Department agencies out of the District of Columbia has delayed the publication of dozens of ...
Farm group moves to permanently block California’s Prop. 65 glyphosate-cancer warning labels
A nationwide coalition of agricultural producers and business organizations representing a substantial segment of U.S. agriculture filed a motion on ...
Too many carbs, calories? Nope. Lack of fiber biggest problem with American diets
Ask Americans about what they think is the biggest problem with their diets and you'll probably hear a variety of ...
Over 99% of farmers follow EPA pesticide rules, so why is the public scared of chemicals?
[In September] the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its 2017 pesticide residue sampling data results. FDA concluded: “The ...
