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.
Infographic: How crops are genetically modified to resist plant viruses
Plant viruses can be serious pathogens in crops as they can cause anywhere from minor losses to total crop failure ...
Bio-weapons for good: Chemicals and genetics could battle havoc-creating zebra mussels
[Kenny Beckman’s lab at the University of Minnesota] expects to release...the first ever sequence of the entire genome of the ...
Regulatory delays of GMO crops in Africa cost lives and millions of dollars, study finds
Kenya, Uganda and many other African countries had the chance to follow South Africa's example of adopting genetically engineered (GE) ...
What happens when public realizes organic foods grown using pesticides, more prone to contamination?
Here are some shockers about how the “organic foods” phenomenon is costing you more, making foods less safe and costing ...
Viewpoint: Canadian monarch butterfly and bee populations thrive as glyphosate use increases
What happened to the monarchs? The popular story is that genetically modified crops and an evil herbicide called glyphosate (also ...
Anti-GMO Indian environmentalists try to derail GMO mustard commercialization
Dr Pushpa M Bhargava, India’s premier geneticist, who was appointed to [India’s] GEAC [Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee] by the apex ...
GMOs are not an either/or debate
On the one hand, GM crops can help us feed poor people in far-flung parts of the world by making ...
Ireland’s ag minister wants to make island GMO-free global seed refuge
Ireland should work to have all-island status as GMO-free to maintain biodiversity, according to Minister of State for Agriculture Andrew ...
Oyster crackers deception: Dissecting Westminster Bakers’ Non-GMO label scam
[Editor's note: James Cooper holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Ohio State University.] So what does that mean for oyster ...
Opinion: GMOs could help address world hunger—if ag giants focused on people, not profit
[Transgenic crops] combine genetic material obtained through the most modern biotechnology. This...technology allows plant breeders to bring useful genes together ...
India’s GM mustard approval on hold pending outcome of anti-GMO lawsuit
India’s top court ... put the commercial release of a genetically-modified mustard variety on hold until it decides on a case ...
House Democrats push for neonicotinoid insecticide ban in next farm bill
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) wants to include a ban on pesticides linked to declining bee health in next year’s farm ...
Gene-swapping cheese microbes could provide clues to antibiotic resistance in humans
You and your favorite cheese—whether it's cheddar, Wensleydale, or a good aged goat brie—have something in common: You’re both home to a ...
Uganda ponders gene-edited crops to avoid restrictive GMO regulations
Scientists globally... are engaged in plant breeding using genetic modification methods where a gene from a different plant is identified ...
High cost of biotech seeds drives one farmer to switch some acreage to non-GMO
In 2014, [farmer Nathan] Reed fought for financial breath even after skinning inputs one by one...With an eye on cost ...
Viewpoint: How the Monsanto-Bayer merger threatens livelihoods of rural America
[Writer Austin Frerick lives in Winterset, Iowa and is a former economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.] Iowa ...
Why one anti-GMO farmer switched to genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant seeds
Greg Guenther is now an enthusiastic user of genetically modified seed, despite steering clear of it in the mid-1990s, having ...
‘True blue’ chrysanthemum flowers created using genetic engineering
Roses are red, but science could someday turn them blue. That’s one of the possible future applications of a technique ...
Chipotle got rid of food with ‘scary-sounding chemicals’—So why are customers getting sick?
[Editor's note: Joseph Perrone is the Chief Science Officer at the Center for Accountability in Science.] [Spring 2017], Chipotle reinforced its ...
‘Chemicals’ not biggest threat to food safety—and 9 other myths about modern farming busted
Next time you’re at the grocery store, consider these 10 modern myths about the most ancient occupation. 4. A pesticide ...
Over-fishing to supply fish oil with omega-3? GMO camelina may soon offer sustainable alternatives
Metabolic engineers have moved a step closer to sourcing fish oils from fields rather than from the oceans with a ...
Indian scientist: Promoting ‘rich man’s’ organic food’ and delaying insect-resistant GMO eggplant hurts poor
Chairman of Review Committee for Genetic Manipulations (RCGM) Dr B Sesikeran ... said by stalling Bt brinjal [eggplant], India has only done more ...
Kenya could become first country to approve GMO bridal bouquet ‘baby’s breath’ flowers
Baby’s breath, a staple of bridal bouquets, could become Kenya’s first commercially grown genetically modified (GM) flower. By introducing genes ...
India’s cotton farmers turn to black market herbicide-tolerant GM varieties to improve yields
The cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops with new transgenic traits such as herbicide tolerance (HT) is spreading fast in ...
Tomorrow’s corn: Gene associated with resistance to multiple leaf diseases identified
Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a specific gene in corn that appears to be associated with resistance ...
Does the US grow too much GMO corn and soy, most used for livestock?
[Editor’s Note: Jayson Lusk is a food and agricultural economist and head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University.] ...
How EU could make GMO crop regulations more scientific
In recent years, the EU legislation on genetically modified (GM) crops has come under severe criticism. Among the arguments are ...
