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.
Agricultural chemicals in the crosshairs as tariff wars heat up
Price discrepancies for agricultural chemicals are decreasing, according to Farmers Business Network (FBN) 2025 Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report. The 2025 ...
Putting your money where your ideals are? Claims that consumers care about food, farming and sustainability are mostly suspect
Sustainability has dominated the food and beverage conversation for the past two decades, with consumers increasingly concerned about the damaging ...
Doomsday seed bank vault: How the US government protects our food and farming future
In 1958 the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the first federal seed bank in Fort Collins to preserve valuable seeds for our ...
Reciprocal US-EU food war: Agricultural chemicals in the crosshairs as tariffs begin rolling out
The European Union is looking to halt imports of certain produce grown using pesticides currently banned from use here, the FT ...
Viewpoint: Litigation industry intensifies its lobbying in Iowa to stoke fear about the alleged dangers of glyphosate
I want to refute some dangerous misinformation being propagated around a bill in the Iowa Legislature. There is a concerted ...
What would our diet consist of if we restricted our eating to American-produced food
The notion that the country could produce all of its food domestically is nice—even admirable. An America First food system ...
Don’t waste your money on Vitamin C, D, zinc, elderberry and echinacea supplements—they are a $70 billion-a-year lie
[A] new study was published last week in JAMA Network Open and included more than 15,000 participants. It found that ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why almost all international agricultural biotechnology regulatory structures are a scientific mess, and what reforms are needed
Inappropriate and often politicized regulations in many countries have limited the global benefits of agricultural biotechnology. The Cartagena Protocol on ...
Requiem for junk food? RFK, Jr. proposes banning the use of SNAP food stamps on non-essential junk foods but delivering won’t be easy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed health and human services secretary, and Brooke Rollins, the new agriculture secretary, have both ...
Viewpoint: 50 years after Asilomar set a fractured framework for regulating agricultural genetic enginnering, it’s time to embrace the technology’s full potential
Fifty years ago, scientists developed a regulatory framework for the safe use of recombinant DNA that focused on potential biosafety ...
Viewpoint: The v-Fluence attack file—How the Environmental Working Group undermines science, destroys careers and harms the environment
Just before Christmas Day, 2024, three months after a mendacious, coordinated activist onslaught, the communications consultancy, v- Fluence, began the ...
‘We’re running out of options’: After killing 166 million birds didn’t slow bird flu, what’s next?
When the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus made its first appearance at a U.S. poultry farm in February 2022, roughly 29,000 turkeys at ...
CRISPR gene-edited foods: Three-quarters of Americans surveyed are oblivous to the latest innovations though the most informed view the technology positively
Consumer opposition to genetic modification and genetically modified (GM) foods is well documented in many studies. Whether consumer perceptions and ...
Promises or threats: Dairy industry on tenterhooks about Robert F Kennedy, Jrs. views on milk and other foods
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services has some farmers wondering—will he be a champion ...
Towards a bio-based economy: Turning agricultural biowaste into safer agro-chemicals and additives
Central Macedonia, a region on the northern mainland of Greece, is an important producer of food. It generates a quarter ...
Non-browning and extended life bananas are here—thank you gene editing
UK-based plant biotech co Tropic is gearing up to launch non-browning bananas in March and bananas with extended shelf-life by ...
Viewpoint: U.S. farmers terrified over the polocy havoc Human Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is introducing into food and agriculture
“America’s ag policy is destroying America’s health," said Human Health and Services head Robert Kennedy Jr. at his Senate committee ...
Constitutional ban: Mexican president Sheinbaum poised to sign formal ban on growing genetically modified (GMO) corn
Mexico bans planting of GM corn, sparking potential U.S. tensions President Sheinbaum's reform brands native corn as national identity Mexico's ...
Viewpoint: Africanizing biotechnology—Scientists call for depoliticization of sustainable agriculture research
Africa needs to depoliticise biotechnology research to maximise the benefits of science, technology, and innovation (STI) to drive economic transformation ...
Carbon labeling for food? App helps shoppers choose climate-friendly options in the grocery store
“Consumers are willing to make more sustainable food choices, but lack reliable information to identify the more environmentally-friendly options,” said ...
Can gene editing be safe and ethical?
Modern genetics has enabled scientists to do much more: to make precise, targeted changes to the DNA of organisms in ...
Will vertical farming ever become sustainable and scalable?
Vertical farming has come under fire in the past, with opponents blasting its high energy usage and cost. So, will ...
Is seed oil bad for you? Is tallow oil a healthier replacement?
Many critics promote swapping seed oils for animal fats like butter, beef tallow and lard. Just two decades after the ...
Viewpoint: Activist Food and Water Watch offers its blueprint of what RFK, Jr. should do to ‘reform’ America’s food system
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s conspiracy-laden policies and loyalty to Donald Trump won’t protect our health or our food. Here’s what ...
Africa looks to 7% annual growth to unlock benefits of a bioeconomy
Regions, such as Africa, which have significantly lower carbon emissions compared to the rest of the world, could have a ...
As key ally of RFK. Jr., contoversial Environmental Working Group lobbyist is poised to help steer American health, food and agriculture policy
Efforts to overhaul the U.S. food system have long been stymied by industry lobbying and glacial bureaucracy, said [Scott] Faber, ...
China is one year into its 5-year plan that it hopes will establish it as the global epicenter of agricultural gene editing. Here’s an update
China is set to revolutionize global agriculture with an ambitious biotechnology initiative focused on gene-editing tools and the development of ...
