Daily Food & Agriculture 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.
UK expected to follow EU policy on neonicotinoid insecticides
Newly proud “environmentalist” Michael Gove is promising to deliver a “green Brexit” which will set global gold standards on policies ...
Sri Lankan scientist: Glyphosate herbicide ban not supported by sound science, hurts tea farmers
[Editor’s Note: Parakrama Waidyanatha is a scientist and former Chairman of the Coconut Research Institute.] The grapevine whispered to me ...
Agronomist: No amount of data will satisfy ‘anti-biotech extremists’ peddling precautionary principle
[Tim Durham is a professor of agronomy and agricultural science at Ferrum College in Virginia.] The [precautionary principle, or PP] ...
Studies claiming serious GMO crop risks published mostly in low quality journals and riddled with conflicts of interest, bad science
[Editor's note: Miguel Sanchez is Executive Director of ChileBio. Wayne Parrott is a professor of Crop Science at the University of ...
Robots replacing workers on labor-short California farms
Driscoll’s is so secretive about its robotic strawberry picker it won’t let photographers within telephoto range of it. But if ...
Ghana mulling genetic engineering to combat armyworm crop damage
[Ghana’s] Ministry of Environment, Science, Innovation and Technology has encouraged local scientists to intensify research into ways to fight the ...
Quebec’s plan to prohibit neonics and other pesticides upsets grain producers
Grain producers are not digesting the concept of pesticide regulation announced on [July 19] as part of the Quebec Pesticide ...
Chemist Derek Lowe: Panera Bread spreads misinformation on chemicals and food—yet again
[Editor's note: Derek Lowe is a Duke University-trained organic chemist.] [S]everal people alerted me to one of the latest ads ...
Lawsuit claims chemical companies ‘secretly’ encouraged illegal dicamba herbicide spraying
As suspected drift from dicamba took a toll on farmers the past two growing seasons, Monsanto ... publicly urged growers ...
10 ‘fake news’ unscientific buzzwords and health fads
[Editor's note: Alex Berezow is Senior Fellow of Biomedical Science at the American Council on Science and Health. He holds ...
Megafarms: ‘US model’ large-scale livestock farms offer efficiency—and consequences
Intensive farming of livestock offers many advantages over traditional open ranges, not least economies of cost and scale, more efficient ...
Activists claim ‘faulty’ environmental assessment led to approval of Canadian GMO salmon facility
It was a faulty environmental assessment process that allowed a company in eastern [Prince Edward Island (P.E.I), Canada] to build ...
33 Indian economists urge Prime Minister to approve GM mustard
Dear Mr. Prime Minister, We, a group of concerned Indian economists, write this open letter to express our strong support ...
GMO crops could help Pakistan tap its agricultural ‘true potential’
[Lahore, the capital city of the Pakistani province of Punjab and its] Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called ...
Bollworm resistance to Bt cotton problematic for southern farmers
From the Carolinas to Texas, the cotton bollworm is leading an assault on Bt cotton again [in 2017]. Growing resistance ...
Uganda president: Abandon ‘subsistence agriculture’, pass biotechnology bill
President Yoweri Museveni has singled out continued subsistence agriculture by the majority of the Ugandan population as a major factor ...
Monsanto’s Robert Fraley: How gene editing and data science can help meet global food needs sustainably
[Editor’s Note: Robert Fraley is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Monsanto.] I was humbled to be the ...
Scotts reports ‘significant progress’ in eliminating GE bentgrass that escaped Oregon field trails
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is reporting significant progress in eliminating genetically engineered creeping bentgrass plants from Malheur and Jefferson counties in ...
French scientists create disease-resistant tomato varieties
Scientists in France have created two new varieties of tomatoes, with an attractive color, shape, and melt-in-the-mouth taste, and which ...
Rice, papaya, oranges — 3 GMO versions of conventional crops tweaked for humanity’s benefit
[Editor's note: Dr. Carol Lynn Curchoe is the founder of 32ATPs, and is a scientist, teacher, consultant, advisor, and author.] Let's look ...
Genebanks: Preserving plant genetic diversity to fight hunger and cope with climate change
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 75 percent of plant genetic diversity was lost in the last century ...
South America projected to overtake US in GMO soy production, accelerate corn output by 2026
Brazil will outperform the United States as the world's largest soy producer in the next decade, While the increase in maize ...
As African countries develop GMO crops, scientists escalate communication outreach
African countries are currently having trouble releasing their biotech crops popularly known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) to farmers, but ...
Video: Herbicide-resistant rice variety could help address ‘superweed’ problem affecting non-GMO crops
As weeds become more resistant to herbicides, plant breeders are faced with the challenge of developing new varieties that are ...
Deciding between GMO and non-GMO seeds? Two farmers weigh pros and cons of each
[in 2015] Minnesota farmer Pat Duncanson switched 95% of his corn acres to non-GMO crops. His motivation was to save ...
Viewpoint: Africa must modernize farms by embracing biotechnology to fight malnutrition
[Editor's note: Mark Lynas is a British journalist and environmentalist.] Africa desperately needs agricultural modernisation. With the most rapidly growing population ...
Corn farmers relieved as China resumes import of GMO-fed US beef imports
As US beef exports to China resume ... Nebraska is optimistic that its biggest crop export – corn – will also benefit. The ...
