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.
WHO IARC reviewer reiterates no health concerns for glyphosate safe ‘if used as directed’
A leading Canadian public health official has commended New Brunswick's review of a controversial herbicide . . . Dr. John McLaughlin, ...
How will potential takeover of Syngenta by ChemChina affect US farmers?
Long a major customer of U.S. farmers, China on [Aug. 22] took another step toward being a major supplier, as a key U.S ...
Pesticides impact health in farming communities, GMOs can reduce their use
. . . [W]hat’s lost in the debates over imaginary risks from GMOs is the real threat posed by the ...
Regulation, not domestic capability, stifles biotechnology in India
In this interview, [K.K. Narayanan, one of the Founder-Directors of Metahelix Life Sciences] speaks about the arduous but persistent ...
Australia, New Zealand reviewing bruise resistant, low acrylamide GMO potato
Australia's food regulator has called for submissions as it reviews a genetically-modified potato designed to produce less chemicals when fried ...
Do anti-GMO activist NGOs falsely represent the broad public will?
. . . . NGOs present themselves to policymakers as representative of civil society . . . demanding equal engagement in the ...
Legal scholar Cass Sunstein’s cost-benefit analysis finds mandatory GMO labels ‘difficult to justify’
Many people favor labeling GM food on the ground that it poses serious risks to human health and the environment, ...
US national security regulators approve ChemChina takeover of Syngenta
. . . [T]he U.S. national-security regulator approved China National Chemical Corp.’s planned $43 billion takeover of Swiss seed giant Syngenta AG ...
Mark Lynas: US Right to Know funded by anti-vaccine activists
USRTK’s [U.S. Right to Know] funding is substantial. . . . . . . .To date, it has received $314,500 ...
Will consumers embrace ‘animal-free’ milk produced using genetically engineered yeast?
Perfect Day, a new ‘animal-free’ milk scheduled to launch at the end of next year, contains all the same components ...
How Monsanto’s ‘big bet’ on dicamba tolerant GMOs may have backfired
. . . . Back in April, [Monsanto] bet big on dicamba, announcing a $975 million expansion of its production facility. . . The chemical ...
Bangladesh will continue GMO cultivation, pursue improved rice varieties
The government will continue plans allowing Genetically Modified (GM) crop cultivation, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told a discussion [Aug. 20] on ...
Nepal should explore potential of GMO crops, says food technologist
In January of 2014, the Supreme Court [of Nepal] issued an interim order to. . . prohibit imports of genetically ...
South Korea debates GMO labeling requirements
Seoul Metropolitan Government launched South Korea’s first “zero-GMO markets” in Sept. 2015. It was a plan to sell only non-genetically ...
Activists urge Kenya to pass law compensating farmers whose crops ‘contaminated by GMOs’
The government has been urged to create a law to compensate farmers whose farms might be contaminated with GMOs. Kenya ...
Monsanto to build high tech GMO greenhouse in Arizona
Multinational biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. is bringing a small chunk of its highly influential — and controversial — seed operation ...
Hampton Creek’s vegan mayonnaise losing money, partly due to cost of non-GMO ingredients
Hampton Creek, [maker] of mayonnaise, ranch dressing and other food products, has come under scrutiny by regulators for its business practices ...
New biofortified GMO rice could alleviate iron, zinc deficiencies
Rice is the staple food for billions of people throughout the developing world. But beyond easing hunger pains and providing ...
U.S. Right to Know suing UC Davis for public records on GMOs
Consumer group U.S. Right to Know filed a lawsuit [Aug. 17] to compel the University of California, Davis to comply with requests ...
European Food Safety Authority says new GMO soybean ‘as safe as’ non-GMO variety
The Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of the European Food Safety Authority (GMO Panel) previously assessed the two single events combined ...
GMO corn with insect resistance, herbicide tolerance shows increased use, higher yields
Genetically engineered (GE) seeds are widely used in U.S. field crop production. . . . Seeds that have both herbicide-tolerant and ...
India’s director of agricultural research calls for more public-private GMO partnerships
Trilochan Mohapatra [a molecular geneticist] took over as . . . director general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in February. ...
Government interference between GMO providers, licensees weakens Indian agriculture
The agri-biotech industry takes risks by putting in huge money, effort and valuable human resource in conducting research over years ...
Monsanto, researchers will collaborate on Nigeria’s first GMO cotton variety
. . . [Nigeria could see] the production of the first set of Genetically Modified cotton also known as Bt cotton ...
Nutritionist Julie Miller Jones: ‘We need to communicate risks of NOT using GMOs’
Leading nutritionist Julie Miller Jones aims to bust myths about biotechnology by educating the general population on the benefits she believes genetically engineered (GE) ...
GMO labeling could give New Zealand’s GMO-free products advantage in U.S. markets
Changes in food-labelling legislation in the United States appear to have positive implications for New Zealand agriculture. All food labelling ...
Bayer may be prepared to mount hostile takeover of Monsanto
The German chemical giant Bayer may be prepared to go hostile in its bid for U.S. seed company Monsanto. In ...
