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.
‘Food Evolution’ review: Film shows fear of GMOs in rich countries hurts African farmers
The Food Evolution documentary, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy and narrated by pop astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, navigates ...
Infographic: Vermont’s twisted GMO labeling logic
Although the prospect for on-product labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United States have dimmed, critics of biotechnology continue ...
How GMOs help farmers achieve more sustainable ‘conservation agriculture’
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer, who grows row crops, and raises ...
Everything you need to know about the evolving fiasco over IARC’s glyphosate cancer designation
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed research data regarding Monsanto’s glyphosate weed killer, also known ...
Foodie Michael Pollan and 45 researchers dismiss Food Evolution doc as ‘a piece of propaganda’
[Editor's note: The following is part of a letter signed by 45 academics including University of California-Berkeley professor Michael Pollan, ...
Opinion: Food patents immoral? Anti-GMO argument isn’t based on logic or science
[Editor's note: "Fallacy Man" is the pseudonym for a PhD biology student who blogs at The Logic of Science.] ["It’s morally wrong ...
Infographic: Twisted GMO labeling logic
Although the prospect for on-product labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United States have dimmed, critics of biotechnology continue ...
NY Times on Food Evolution movie: ‘In a world desperate for safe, sustainable food, GMOs may well be a force for good’
The scientific method is under siege, and not just from naysayers who dismiss climate change or fear vaccines. G.M.O.s — ...
Marion Nestle: ‘GMO propaganda’ film Food Evolution quoted me ‘out of context’
[Editor's note: Marion Nestle is a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. She is featured ...
Open-source seeds: Breeders release tomato, wheat strains that aren’t allowed to be patented
There's open-source software, open-source pharma research, and open-source beer. Now, there are open-source seeds, too. Breeders from Göttingen University in ...
Sustainable farming debate: Food choice has greater impact on environment than how it’s grown
[Editor's note: Michael Clark is a PhD student in natural resources science and management at the University of Minnesota. David Tilman ...
Do GM crop regulatory delays, trade disputes threaten global food security?
[Editor's note: Stuart Smyth is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan.] Genetically ...
Brazil’s approval of GM sugarcane sets off debate over country’s biodiversity
A genetically modified (GM) cane variety that can kill the sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis) has been approved in Brazil, to ...
Honey bees could be shielded by probiotics from toxic effects of pesticide exposure, study finds
In a new study from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University, researchers have shown that probiotics can potentially protect ...
Report: Australia’s GM canola, cotton have been boon for farmers, environment
Genetically Modified (GM) crops have generated significant environmental improvements over the past 20 years in Australia and 25 other countries ...
Environmental Defense Fund: Sustainable farming, feeding growing population require biotechnology
It is critical that humanity meet the food needs of a growing population and relieve the increasing pressures on natural ...
CRISPR-edited algae with high biofuel yield created by ExxonMobil, Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics
La Jolla [California’s] Synthetic Genomics and oil giant ExxonMobil say they have created an oil-rich strain of algae that represents ...
US will fight ‘non-science-based’ overseas regulations that restrict GMO exports, says trade representative
The Trump administration will attack overseas regulations that restrict the export of GMO crops and other products resulting from American technological ...
Proposed US rules on gene-edited crops, animals could hamper technology’s potential
US regulatory agencies have proposed guidelines and draft regulations that suggest they may subject gene-edited crops and livestock to the ...
‘Billion-dollar pest’: EPA approves first ‘gene-silenced’ insect-resistant RNAi crops
EPA recently registered four products containing a new and innovative plant-incorporated protectant (PIP) called SMARTSTAX PRO that will help U.S ...
Opinion: Celebrities, environmental activist groups should stop shaming parents into avoiding GMOs
The Environmental Media Association has teamed up with the organic dairy farm Clover Sonoma to celebrate Dairy Month in an ...
Organic industry-funded anti-GMO group US Right to Know calls Food Evolution film ‘chemical industry propaganda’
[Editor's note: Stacy Malkan is co-director of US Right to Know. Read the GLP's profile of USRTK here.] Some industry messaging ...
Better tasting cantaloupe: Wal-Mart teams with Bayer to breed hardier fruit
Wal-Mart says it typically sells 10 times more cantaloupes in June, when it can buy from U.S. farms, than it ...
Ecuador passes law allowing GMO crop research
[Editor's note: The following article has been translated from Spanish.] Ecuador has approved a law allowing the entry of genetically ...
Nina Fedoroff: USDA, FDA proposals intended to streamline biotech crop regulations don’t offer needed relief
[Editor's note: Nina Fedoroff is an American molecular biologist. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2007 and served ...
Pro-GMO vegans? Online community champions biotechnology, science literacy
[Andrea] Palmieri, who now leads the March Against Myths, is a bit of a contradiction. In fact, she was once told ...
WHO’s IARC: Why we did not consider evidence glyphosate herbicide is safe
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Reuters article.] The IARC Secretariat ...
