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.
Adoption of GMO cotton in Zimbabwe could increase national income by $50 million
Zimbabwe has been urged to embrace genetically modified (GM) crops to improve harvests and reduce production costs as production in cotton ...
World Food Prize awarded to scientists who developed biofortified sweet potato
Four scientists have been awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for enriching sweet potatoes, which resulted in health benefits for ...
Kevin Folta, Borlaug CAST Communication Award winner: ‘Lead with your ethics’
[T]he winner of the Borlaug CAST Communication Award (BCCA) was honored at a World Food Prize side event, and this ...
Anti-GMO-touted Italian paper claiming GM genes in blood and organs found to be fabricated
Earlier this year, a nutrition journal retracted an article about the potential dangers of eating food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), ...
Could GMO cassva prevent ‘konzo’ disease caused by cyanide in staple crop?
[K]onzo [is] a neurotoxic disease that people succumb to when they have nothing to eat except for the white roots ...
Voice of the Farmers event counterpoint to faux Monsanto tribunal
The [activist-organized, mock 'Monsanto Tribunal'] isn’t about Monsanto at all, but about stifling tools like genetic engineering, and agricultural chemicals ...
RNA spray could fight fungal disease in barley crops
Spraying barley crops with RNA molecules that inhibit fungus growth could help protect the plants against disease, according to a ...
Michael Pollan gets it wrong: Big Ag not the villain
Journalist Michael Pollan deserves credit for elevating the national conversation about food... But his latest piece in the New York Times ...
Monsanto Open Letter challenges activist-staged ‘Monsanto Tribunal’ mock trial
For The Record: Mock trial distracts from real dialogue on the world’s food and agriculture needs and the full realization ...
GMO backlash: Has the world reached ‘Peak GMO’?
Technology opens doors; society decides whether to pass through those doors... . . . . If the Internet and the ...
Nature Editorial: ‘Appeasing US anti-GMO movement by agreeing to labeling will likely backfire’
Although a US law mandating disclosure of GM ingredients provides food companies with a way out of the labeling rabbit ...
Mark Lynas: India’s GMO mustard will bring cheaper hybrids, not increase herbicide use
In an interview with Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Mark Lynas, a reporter with the Cornell Alliance who reports on crop biotechnology around ...
Europe’s neonicotinoid ban contributed to one-third drop in Britain’s rapeseed
Britain's rapeseed harvest fell this year by almost one-third due to poor yields and a prolonged decline in the planted area which ...
WikiLeaks shows how Big Organic’s Gary Hirshberg ‘bought’ Clinton’s support for GMO labeling
The latest WikiLeaks dump of Democratic Party emails shows that one prominent Big Organic player gets his emails answered by ...
India’s prime minister supports GMO mustard, but can he convince state governments?
As chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi may have extolled the virtues of genetically modified (GM) crops... but as prime minister, he ...
Scientists developing device to detect GMOs in the environment
...[R]esearchers led by Rice's Scott Egan, an assistant professor of biosciences, are building tools to detect, quantify and track the ...
Kenya: Should decisions on GMO maize field trials be made by politicians or experts?
Health minister Cleopa Mailu’s decision to keep on hold the planned trials of genetically modified (GM) maize on the basis ...
South Korean consumer groups, politicians call for mandatory GMO labeling
Costco and Burger King have been found to have brought the largest amounts of processed food products containing genetically modified ...
German farmers concerned about Bayer-Monsanto merger
[This excerpt was translated from the German by Google Translate and lightly edited for clarity] Group names such as Monsanto and ...
Genetic engineering could make pork heart-healthy if not for regulatory hurdles
GMO breakthroughs ... promise advances in nutrition, health, the environment and our food supply. But they face regulatory and political challenges ...
Bayer has no plans to introduce GMO crops in Europe if Monsanto takeover approved
German chemicals firm Bayer said [Oct. 10] it would not introduce genetically modified crops in Europe after its gigantic takeover of ...
South Korea developing GMO rice varieties to fight climate change, but public skepticism remains
Public opinion is divided into pros and cons over the South Korean government's all-out efforts to develop genetically modified rice ...
Brazil approves import of 3 GMO corn varieties for animal feed
Brazil's biosafety commission CTNBio approved on [Oct. 6] imports of three genetically modified (GM) varieties of corn from the United States ...
India unlikely to approve GMO mustard in time for coming growing season
The debate around genetically modified crops and a recent PIL in the Supreme Court may force the government to delay ...
After Brexit, UK farmers want speedier, science-based pesticide approval and regulation
A more science-based, pragmatic and faster approach to approving pesticides and regulating their use in the UK post Brexit was ...
Adoption of GMO crops could improve health of Chinese farmers
It is notable that the adoption of GM glyphosate-tolerant crops increases glyphosate use but reduces non-glyphosate herbicide use; and adoption ...
Syrian seed bank that holds genes to fight climate change relocating due to war
A major seed bank in Aleppo, Syria, holds genes that might help researchers breed crops to survive climate change. But ...
