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.
Battle over cancer warning label, glyphosate ban could complicate Roundup lawsuit settlement
Bayer AG is in mediation to potentially settle thousands of U.S. lawsuits claiming that the company’s Roundup weed killer causes ...
Off-patent GMO Bt corn could slash seed costs for farmers, boost crop yields
Extremely low-cost and high-yield Bt corn? Off-patent, generic Bt corn is rapidly approaching farmland and the price differential might cause ...
Bacteria inoculate crops against salty soil, potentially bringing unworkable farmland back to life
[S]cientists have used bacteria found in the roots of salt-tolerant plants to successfully inoculate alfalfa plants against overly salty soil ...
Crops engineered to destroy infected cells could fight off deadly diseases
Hiding inside each plant cell, protein complexes encoded by disease resistance genes are like sleeping armies, waking up and activating ...
Gene-silencing biopesticide targets harmful insects without threatening pollinators
A natural, sustainable alternative to pesticides that targets specific pests, without harming beneficial pollinators such as honeybees, is being developed ...
Non-GMO product demand surges while consumer biotech knowledge remains low, survey shows
The proportion of shoppers shunning genetically modified foods has tripled over the past decade, according to The Hartman Group, Bellevue, ...
20 French mayors ban glyphosate, spurring new legal battle over Bayer’s controversial weed killer
Some 20 French mayors have banned glyphosate from their municipalities, defying the government, which is now taking legal action to ...
Viewpoint: Want to fight climate change? Embrace GMOs, don’t ban them
The fight against climate change has become one of the most widely discussed topics in the UK and globally. And ...
GMO crops cover 191 million hectares worldwide—113-fold increase since 1996
Biotechnology can be used to develop stress-tolerant and more nutritious crop varieties to protect natural resources and human health. Each ...
CRISPR-edited wheat resists humidity damage, could yield higher quality flour
Scientists have created a rain-resistant wheat variety using genome-editing technology, a breakthrough that could lead to the development of higher-quality ...
Smartphone app could help banana growers spot major diseases before they strike
This work is a step towards creating a satellite-powered, globally connected network to control disease and pest outbreaks ...
Dr. Harriet Hall: National Geographic natural foods book ‘unscientific, and even dangerous’
The National Geographic store proclaims, “This authoritative guide to the foods, herbs, spices, essential oils, and other natural substances that ...
GMO Bt cowpea could save Nigeria millions in crop imports annually
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) says Nigeria can save billions of naira if it cuts down on its importation ...
Exploring the biotechnology revolution in food and medicine
Biotechnology develops cellular and bimolecular processes to create products that will make our lives easier .... Today, biotechnology fights against ...
Plant-based Impossible, Beyond burgers will help wean consumers off meat, Whole Foods CEO says
In 2013, Whole Foods gave plant-based meat start-up Beyond Meat its first shot at selling its vegan “chicken” strips at ...
CRISPR guacamole, anyone? Gene-edited avocados could survive disease, cold climates
Researchers from Texas Tech University and the University of Buffalo have studied avocados in a way that is best described as ...
Video: Prof Joe Schwarcz on why bugs may be coming to our dinner plates
Pretty soon there will be 9 billion people coming to dinner. That population boom is going to require an increase ...
Bayer sells animal health division for $7.6 billion, denies deal prompted by glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
Agriculture and pharmaceutical giant Bayer [August 20] agreed [to] a $7.6 billion deal to sell its animal health business to ...
Viewpoint: Facing climate change, global hunger crisis, we should fix our ‘faulty food system’
Fixing the world’s “faulty food system” is increasingly being recognized as one of the key ways to fight climate change ...
‘Teaching plants new tricks’: How synthetic biology is reshaping agriculture
Aug 7-9, San Jose, California – the American Society for Plant Biology (ASPB) showcased the latest research in Plant Synthetic Biology ...
Scientists at Kenya’s biosafety conference debunk GMO-cancer link blocking Africa’s biotech progress
Despite widespread reports that genetically modified foods (GMOs), cause cancer, no evidence exists to prove this, scientists and researchers have ...
Radar and robots: Can technology turn honeybees into more efficient pollinators?
According to the Bee Informed Partnership, 37.7% of managed honey bee colonies were lost during the 2018-19 winter — the ...
‘Proudly GMO’ probiotic takes aim at hangovers. Can it ease consumer fear of biotechnology?
On [August 17], a San Francisco-based start-up called ZBiotics celebrated the launch of its first product in a fitting way: ...
Kenya will approve biotech crops on case-by-case basis, three months after proposing to lift GMO ban
Kenyans are still waiting on the Government’s decision as to whether it will lift the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms ...
Lab-grown burgers and now…coffee? Seattle-based startup developing bean-free ‘molecular’ java
[Recently], the United Nations shared yet another alarming report about climate change. This time, it focused on the threat to ...
South Australia to lift ‘stifling’ GMO crop ban that cost farmers $33 million
The Marshall Liberal Government has [on August 19] announced farmers on mainland South Australia will be given the choice to ...
UK farmers struggle to control ‘largely symptomless’ virus without neonicotinoid insecticides
A mild autumn and winter combined with a build-up in aphid numbers since the loss of neonicotinoid seed treatments has ...
