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.
Food industry moves to reformulate spices, dyes and other products in response to RFK, Jr.’s controversial attacks on safe additives
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s influence is already being felt throughout the food ...
Organic produce now costs as much as 53% more than conventional alternatives, and the price disparity is getting worse
Clean eating is important to many Americans, and that often goes beyond fruits and veggies. The quality of those products ...
The FDA’s new definitions of ‘healthy’ foods takes effect at the end of April—Here’s what you need to know
All of us have probably had the experience of browsing the aisles at the grocery store looking for healthy foods ...
Swamped by lawsuits targeting its weedkiller paraquat, Syngenta reaches mass settlement but reaffirms global regulatory consensus that the chemical is safe-as-used
Besieged by thousands of lawsuits alleging that its paraquat weedkiller causes Parkinson’s disease, its manufacturer, Syngenta, has entered into an agreement aimed ...
Building a fattier—and healthier—future: How AI could revolutionize the food industry
Food manufacturers are desperate for high-performance fats that meet ESG targets. As meat consumption rises, they’re increasingly concerned about supply ...
The coming generation of gene edited foods are engineered to address consumer needs not just farmers’
['O]ne of the great benefits of using genome editing is we can do more than one thing at a time: ...
CRISPR offers unique food safety tools
At its core, CRISPR works like a genetic search-and-replace tool. The system uses guide RNA to locate specific DNA sequences ...
What’s the recipe for healthier food? Healthier soil?
Greater biodiversity is the key to healthier soil. And healthier soil is the key to a range of environmental and ...
Combinations of some sweeteners and food additives slightly increase health risks
Food additives are widely used by the agri-food industry and are especially common in ultra-processed products found in supermarkets. Scientific ...
‘Tariffs on China could put me out of business’: Trump-supporting farmers panicked by erratic trade flip flops pleads for a quick deal
Amid an escalating trade war, President Donald Trump announced a 125 percent tariff on China while the country hit back ...
From nuclear energy to chemicals to vaccines to GMO crops and food, conspiracy theories and disinformation are as rampant on the political left as the far right
The great majority of conspiracy theories and disinformation spread about environmental and health topics are popularly attributed to the conservative/right side of the political spectrum. But ...
Mostly nutrition-less rice could be gene edited to increase heart health for hundreds of million of nutrition-challenged children
A team of Chinese scientists has successfully modified rice to produce coenzyme Q10, an essential compound known for its role in energy ...
Viewpoint: In RFK, Jr.’s Brave New World of food and health, Zen Honeycutt and and other ‘zealots and gurus’ roam freely
In an NPR article on Moms Across America’s Zen Honeycutt, covered in The Firebreak, the anti-vax activist stated she had given her co-conspirator, ...
Viewpoint: ‘We need to protect ag’ — ‘Meritless’ threats to ban safe pesticides and chemicals could surge US food costs by $10 billion
Along with volatile market conditions and erratic weather, Florida’s farmers now face growing legal assaults brought on by activist lawyers ...
Here’s the case for vertical farming and gene editing in Pakistan
When genome editing and vertical farming are combined, the results are transformative. Scientists can tailor crops-like dwarf wheat or fast-growing ...
AI, freeze drying and 3-D printing are poised to make food more nutritious and carbon friendly
One of the most promising applications is the use of AI to tackle food loss — one of the biggest ...
Bayer petitions Supreme Court to block lawsuits targeting Roundup and set aside verdicts because EPA has determined it is safe as used
Bayer (BAYGn.DE) said on [April 4, 2025] it was again petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to sharply limit legal claims that ...
Trump’s first tariff trade war cost U.S. farmers $27 billion. This round is shaping up as far worse, with food prices poised to rise as a result
If history is any indicator, farmers are sure to pay for Trump's trade war. During the first Trump administration, retaliatory ...
AI generated food images make people queasy. Here’s why
If you’ve seen a recent advertisement for food that you found unsettling rather than appealing, artificial intelligence may be to ...
Switzerland poised to break from its anti-GMO past, edges closer to deregulating gene edited crops to increase crop yields
Switzerland is considering a change of its rules to allow gene editing, reflecting a broader shift across Europe aimed at ...
Tariff chaos threatens to ignite agricultural trade war with China that could roil US farmers and send food prices soaring
China ... is the third-largest importer of American farm goods, behind Mexico and Canada. ... [It's] retaliatory tariffs, which are supposed ...
117 Organizations join 153 Nobel laureates in a global call for agricultural innovation to end hunger
More than 115 organizations worldwide have joined a coalition urging urgent action against global hunger. This initiative follows the call ...
Nanomedicine techniques are being redeployed to accelerate transition to more sustainable farming
Cancer drugs and agrichemicals can be powerful, but toxic, tools. Now, UNSW scientists are applying nanomedicine insights in a project ...
Indonesia reconsidering its opposition to genetically modified crops
The [Indonesian] government is looking to develop genetically modified organisms (GMO) to boost domestic soybean production and reduce imports in ...
Bananas that don’t brown within minutes? Gene editing makes that possible
“Food waste is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s very bad, clearly,” said Gilad Gershon, the chief executive ...
Urine could be a key source for developing sustainable fertilizers
The reuse of human urine would allow for the production of sustainable fertilizers for urban agriculture, with significant environmental benefits ...
Robot lasers may open the door to near chemical-free agriculture
The LaserWeeder G2 doesn't just remove weeds; it obliterates them. Using optimal thermal energy, the laser explodes cell walls at ...
