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.
Promoted by RFK, Jr. and food influencers bashing seed oils is in fashion. Nutrition scientists shake their heads at this mass ignorance
[‘Seed oil’] is the catchy description coined by internet influencers, wellness gurus and some politicians to refer to common cooking ...
Planting trees to slow climate change—there’s a method to it
Any tree will suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into plant tissue. But it adding a little ...
Turning the humble potato into a bruise-resistant and vitamin-enriched super spud—thanks CRISPR gene editing
As the world searches for more efficient and hardier crops to feed our growing population, one company has been looking ...
Viewpoint: What might be the impact of ultra-processed food labels?
After decades of lobbying, the US government has finally started taking action to warn consumers about the hazards of ultra-processed ...
Viewpoint: The health and environmental case against genetically modified crops in Kenya distorts the facts
Maize is Kenya’s staple food, yet its annual production consistently falls short of demand, hindered by degraded soils, limited access to ...
Some junk snack foods are not nearly as unhealthy as others. Here are better options of popcorn, chips, crackers, cookies and more
Because snacking tends to make up a large portion of our daily calories, the type of foods you choose to ...
Natural. Locally produced. Eco-friendly. Organic—Marketing buzzwords or meaningful descriptors?
[B]ased on a survey of 37 000 consumers in 40 countries, [r]espondents are generally most interested in natural, locally produced, ...
Lab-grown meat, dairy, sugar and other cell-based foods set to become available to UK consumers by 2027
Meat, dairy and sugar grown in a lab could be on sale in the UK for human consumption for the ...
Viewpoint: MIT computer scientist (frequently cited by RFK. Jr.) predicted that by 2025 50% of all U.S. children would be born autistic due to glyphosate exposure. She was off by only 1600%
In the annals of failed doomsday predictions, Dr. Stephanie Seneff’s claim that half of all U.S. children would be autistic ...
Plant-based oils: Non-margarine butter substitute could lengthen your life
Substituting butter with plant-based oils daily may lower risk of premature death by up to 17 percent, according to a ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists, food elitists and trial lawyers profiterring on science disinformation put American farmers and U.S. agricultural policy at risk.
Food elitists contend America's farmers and ranchers have lost their way. They want to overturn the system for food production ...
Low carb diet danger alert: It increases the risk of colorectal cancer
Researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada recently conducted a study to explore how low carb diets can affect ...
Overreaction or ‘about time’: RFK, Jr. targets food dyes and other additives. Here’s a balanced take on their aesthetics and safety
HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told top food executives on March 10 that one of his top priorities would ...
Viewpoint: Why you should exercise skepticism about the ‘food as medicine’ trend
Predictions are that the “food as medicine” movement will gain traction in 2025. Even though nutrition is one important contributor ...
Kenyan lower court bans importation of genetically modified (GM) foods
Controversy surrounding the promotion of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) [March 7] took a full circle after the Court of Appeal ...
Will RFK, Jr. import European science-deficient food and agriculture policy to the U.S.?
President Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to announce April tariffs on all imported food, framing the move as a boon to U.S ...
Girl Scout 25-cookie “study” by crack science organization Moms Across America alleging ‘dangerous’ level of pesticide residues sparks class action tort case
The Girl Scouts have been sued by consumers over the alleged presence of "heavy metals" and pesticides in its popular ...
E-taste—What can we expect with the advent of virtual reality ‘bio-integrated gustatory interfaces’
Virtual reality can, in its own imperfect ways, transport a user into distant experiences. With a headset on, an everyday ...
‘Digital-twin technology’ could revolutionize agriculture. Here’s what happened when it was adopted on one Texas farm
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction — but with enough data, new agricultural models really are able to predict the ...
Egg industry scrambling: Today’s Neros fiddle as the bird flu crisis deepens while politicians and ideologues ignore solutions to the crisis
A bulldozer belches a black cloud of exhaust as the engine revs. A mound of dead chickens flops into a ...
The dangerous downside of ‘clean eating’
In 1997, physician Steven Bratman coined the term “orthorexia” (orthos, “right” and orexia, “appetite,” translating to “righteous eating”) in response to ...
A dangerous Wild West: Weight loss and muscle-building supplement industry is an unregulated mess
In this episode of KQED’s Forum, STRIPED’s Dr. S. Bryn Austin, Nicholas Florko (The Atlantic), and Marily Oppezzo (Stanford) explore the ...
Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are upending the food industry. Here’s what we can expect going forward
The use of anti-obesity medications (AOMs), led by glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists like Ozempic (semaglutide), has skyrocketed over the past ...
Agriculture and technology inflection point: Are our creaky and faltering century old food systems poised for revival?
The fundamental flaw in our initial wave of agricultural technology wasn’t just a lack of tools, it was a mismatch ...
Gene edited crops inch closer to acceptance as outlined in the European Commission’s new blueprint for the future
New research and innovation partnerships, faster risk assessment and innovation-friendly regulations are all on the table as the European Commission ...
Viewpoint: As American farmers increasingly rely on technological innovation, a threatening patent fight looms
During his first term, President Donald Trump prioritized American farmers with policies to protect them from unfair foreign competition...But a ...
A new generation of sustainable crops that redeploy soil microbes to advance sustainable farming is on the horizon
A biological mechanism that makes plant roots more attractive to soil microbes has been discovered by scientists in the UK ...
