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.
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 ...
‘We were lied to’: Will Trump’s order to increase the domestic supply of the weedkiller glyphosate split MAHA?
[T]he executive order Mr. Trump issued February 17 to increase domestic production of glyphosate — a widely used weedkiller and ...
Gene-edited foods are advancing fast—but commercialization and consumer acceptance lag
[A]s gene editing matures, another reality has come into focus. The science accelerates. Commercialization does not. That tension surfaced during ...
GM mushrooms taste like meat but use 70% less land than livestock
Imagine picking up something that looks and chews like chicken, only it never clucked, never set foot on a farm, ...
Bayer agrees to pay $7.2 billion to settle thousands of Roundup suits, bringing total payout to more than $18 billion
Bayer, the German bio-tech giant, has proposed paying $7.25bn ... to definitively resolve a legal battle in the US over ...
Pesticides in the crosshairs as MAHA goes head to head with Republican establishment
Republicans are using the farm bill to take another swing at passing legislation to protect pesticides, something sure to anger ...
‘Not backed by evidence’: RFK, Jr. wrongly claims that keto diet can cure schizophrenia
... Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s claim that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may cure certain psychiatric conditions is misleading and not ...
RFK Jr.’s autism panel packed with bizarre collection of cranks and conspiracists
U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filled an autism committee with friends, associates, and former colleagues who believe that autism ...
Unpasteurized milk scandal: 2% of the U.S. drinks unpasteurized milk but it causes 22x more infections
Consumption of unpasteurised milk in the United States has presented a public health challenge for decades because of the increased ...
Should you follow RFK, Jr.’s guidance to replace seed oils in your diet with beef tallow? Not if you want to stay healthier
“Make frying oil tallow again,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And just like that, Steak ...
