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.
Savagnin Blanc: The 900-year-old grape still used in wine making today
DNA from ancient grape seeds shows the grapevine behind a local vintage has been cultivated continuously for 900 years. Ancient ...
Plant extinction occurring up to 500 times faster than naturally expected, study claims
Almost 600 plant species have been lost from the wild in the last 250 years, according to a comprehensive study ...
Never swayed by science? Why arguing with anti-GMO activists could strengthen their skepticism
Genetic engineering is revolutionizing crop farming, bringing benefits to farmers, the environment and consumer health. Its opponents, however, are not ...
Swaziland (eSwatini) finds success with GMO cotton
The chief executive officer of the Swaziland Cotton Board is urging African leaders to put their political egos aside and ...
How biotech could help save rice, staple crop consumed by half the world daily, from climate change
For more than half the world’s population, rice is on the menu every single day. As a crop that can ...
Nestlé poised to launch plant-based ‘Awesome Burger’ to compete with Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat
Nestlé’s new ‘cook from raw’ plant-based Awesome Burger (launching in the fall under the Sweet Earth brand in retail and ...
Entomologists say urban hobby beekeepers are serious threat to wild bees
There is a downside to the urban beehive boom in Montreal. Entomologists say honey bee hives are a growing threat ...
10% of India’s 12.2 million cotton hectares came from illegal GMO seeds in 2018
A farm group said its members had planted a variety of genetically modified cotton seeds which have not been approved ...
Wheat producers urge EPA to reject activist petition banning pre-harvest glyphosate use on oats
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comment on a September 2018 petition from several special interest groups to ...
Arkansas must reconsider Monsanto lawsuit challenging dicamba herbicide rules, state Supreme Court says
A lawsuit by Monsanto against the state’s restrictions on the use of dicamba raised valid points and should be reconsidered, ...
Meat company turns 20,000 tons of discarded carrots into animal feed to cut food waste
A West Australian company converting thousands of tons of carrots destined for landfill into animal feed is hoping to produce ...
Maine, largest salmon farming state, won’t produce GMO AquAdvantage fish
Genetically engineered salmon is heading to store shelves in the U.S., but it won’t be coming from the biggest salmon ...
Unapproved GMO wheat discovered on Washington state farm, USDA says
The USDA is investigating the discovery of genetically engineered wheat found in an unplanted Washington state farm field. The exact ...
Mike Adams’ Natural News anti-GMO and conspiracy site banned from Facebook
Natural News has nearly 3 million Facebook followers, more than Infowars and Alex Jones combined before Facebook banned them from ...
EPA moves to streamline process for evaluating pesticide impacts on endangered species
[June 6] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler hosted [a panel of federal regulators] to discuss improving the ...
Biopesticide spinosad, popular in organic farming, may harm honeybees, study shows
Bees have experienced substantial colony losses, which were often associated with insecticides. Besides synthetic insecticides biological compounds such as spinosad ...
Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat can’t keep up with demand for plant-based burgers
Fast-food restaurants are rushing to add meat-free burgers to their menus, hoping these higher-priced alternatives will help them capture additional ...
Viewpoint: Want to understand crop biotech? Avoid these discredited anti-GMO sources
Here’s a tip for all the anti-GMO activists out there: If you ever want to get the last word in ...
Can processed food boost global nutrition, despite its unhealthy reputation?
There’s a lot of debate about the safety and value of food that’s been processed .... UMass Amherst food scientist ...
Will warming planet, population boom push skeptical consumers to embrace GMO, CRISPR crops?
As part of an agricultural charm offensive by the US government, a group of British journalists was invited into the ...
Food waste-reducing non-browning Romaine lettuce edges closer to market
The agriculture industry is constantly trying to reduce food waste. To continue that effort, Intrexon Corporation announced it is advancing ...
‘Carbon farming’: The answer to climate change, flooding and declining biodiversity?
The chemical in question is carbon. Too much of it in the atmosphere (in the form of carbon dioxide, a ...
GMO insect-resistant Bt corn cuts pesticide spraying in Spain and Portugal by 37%, study shows
Renowned agricultural economist Graham Brookes of PG Economics published the latest findings on the use of insect resistant maize in ...
USDA proposes regulation ‘overhaul’ to streamline new biotech crop development
Many new genetically engineered crop traits would be exempt from regulation by the Agriculture Department under a sweeping rewrite of ...
Glyphosate-tainted tampons threaten public health? 4 pesticide safety agencies say no
Just like other feminine hygiene products, tampons consist mainly of cotton. As cotton is treated with plant protection products, pesticide ...
Viewpoint: UK bans neonic pesticides, then imports neonic-treated crops at expense of its farmers
The key parts of any fully integrated [pest] management system are the building blocks which are integral to a balanced ...
Bayer asks judge to overturn $80 million glyphosate-cancer verdict, citing evidence excluded from trial
Lawyers for Monsanto Co.’s parent company, Bayer AG, have asked the federal judge overseeing a batch of lawsuits accusing the ...
