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.
Reviewing the evidence on the benefits and dangers of glyphosate
President Trump recently signed an Executive Order that expands U.S. production of glyphosate, a herbicide contained in commercial and domestic ...
A new tool can spot diet and nutrition misinformation—and measure its risk of harm
A new tool that not only identifies diet and nutrition misinformation online but also evaluates the content’s risk for potential ...
How China engineered its agricultural revolution
Between 1959 and 1961, an estimated 30 to 45 million Chinese people died in a famine resulting from Leader Mao Zedong’s Great ...
Viewpoint — Dirty Dozen produce ranking flop: Environmental Working Group is at it again with its scientifically ignorant rankings
Spring has sprung. And along with the change of season comes the annual release of Environmental Working Group’s “Shopper’s Guide to ...
Viewpoint: Cheddar cheese from unpasteurized milk? Cheese linked to e coli outbreak but Raw Farm and organic grocery stores reject recalls
Pasteurization exists for a reason: It is a time-tested way to make sure that dairy products don’t contain bacteria that ...
Viewpoint: The ‘link to cancer’ myth—Activist and trial lawyers misrepresent the potential danger of glyphosate and other herbicides
President Trump recently signed an Executive Order invoking the Defense Production Act to ensure increased domestic supplies of elemental phosphorus ...
Vitamin D alert: Cod liver oil contains environmental toxins. Is it safe to eat?
Cod liver oil comes from fish liver and therefore contains environmental toxins. Is cod liver oil or capsules with fish ...
Stomach or digestion problems? Wellness “experts” on social media are promoting these quack cures
Social media is usually rife with misinformation about how to boost health, and various tricks to your improve your digestion ...
Viewpoint: Farmers face mounting challenges — Proposed U.S. farm bill doesn’t meet them
The House Agriculture Committee advanced a proposed farm bill ... —a set of legislative proposals that have traditionally balanced the social safety ...
Viewpoint: Social media influencers are promoting RFK, Jr.’s dangerous protein-heavy diet
The rise of social media influencers promoting the carnivore diet with its emphasis on eating as much beef, butter and ...
With food prices rising, Democrats blame “corporate consolidation” over food aid cuts as a campaign message
At the Capitol Hill roundtable ..., hosted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), farmers, union leaders, lawyers, academics, ...
Challenging the fasting myth: No, it will not help you lose weight
There are several ways to fast. Some people fast for several days in a row. Others follow the so-called 5:2 ...
Viewpoint: Wheat has become a target of glyphosate critics. Should the herbicide be banned?
We have reached a point where the mere mention of glyphosate reflexively triggers public reactions of fear, regardless of whether ...
U.S. defunding International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), UN-affiliated group that issued cancer warnings for glyphosate, steak, and getting a haircut
The United States’s withdrawal this year from the World Health Organization (WHO) is having knock-on effects on an influential global ...
Viewpoint: Is the Republican-backed farm bill an agriculture industry giveaway?
The newly proposed, Republican-led farm bill includes a range of provisions opponents say constitute a “pesticide industry wishlist” that would ...
Viewpoint—Liberal delusion: No, RFK, Jr. would not have made a great Secretary of Agriculture
The standard non-MAGA take on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is that it’s too bad he’s such a brain-wormed lunatic about ...
EU’s imminent embrace of gene-edited crops threatens to leave New Zealand a science laggard
The European Union is poised to make changes to allow gene editing technology in mid-May that, if passed, would put ...
RFK, Jr. and MAHA wellness influencers are wrong about seed oils. Here’s a guide
Are seed oils harmful? Social media trends and wellness influencers often say yes. Some restaurants now advertise seed oil–free menus. The ...
Target targets May to remove synthetic colors from breakfast foods
The Make America Healthy Again movement has made its mark on one of America’s largest retailers. Target announced [on February ...
If you’ve identified as transgender or nonbinary in Kansas, you’ve just lost your ID and driver’s license
The number of bills directly targeting and undermining the existing legal rights of transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S ...
The public does not perceive differences between CRISPR crops and GMOs. That presents problems
Although Canadian regulatory bodies have established separate guidelines for GMOs and CRISPR crops, it remains unclear whether the public can ...
Why you shouldn’t follow RFK, Jr.’s meat-intensive diet
Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again mates have long been extolling the virtues of meat and whole-fat dairy, so ...
37 food ‘facts’ that are wrong
[T]here’s a lot of culinary misinformation out there that could potentially spoil your supper. Want to separate the myths from the ...
‘They are an essential part of a healthy diet’: Debunking MAHA’s rejection of seed oils
For years now, seed oils have been cast as the quiet villain of modern eating. Scroll through social media, and ...
Tyson foods on the defensive about ‘net zero’ and ‘climate smart’ beef claims
In late 2025, the global meat giant Tyson Foods agreed to a landmark settlement that bars it from describing its beef as “net‑zero” ...
RFK, Jr.’s aversion to legislation raises the question: Will his revolution endure?
Over the course of his year in the Cabinet, Kennedy has racked up major wins for his Make America Healthy ...
Operation Stork Speed: RFK, Jr. targets baby formulas
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. summoned infant-formula executives to Washington last spring, he arrived with ...
