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.
Salinity crisis: With salt affecting 30% of arable land worldwide, salt-loving plants may help enhance production
Budding new plant biology research is paving the potential to produce food crops that not only survive but thrive in ...
How AI is already optimizing food production
[A]rtificial intelligence, or AI, is already being harnessed to optimize food production. Technology products that are currently on the market ...
New Zealand poised to soften restrictions on genetically modified crops by the end of the year, green light gene editing
For nearly three decades, New Zealand’s strict regulations around genetic modification have more or less confined research opportunities to the ...
What can farmers do to mitigate the impact of rising global temperatures
Dire warnings of the terrible effects of changes in our global climate seem to be all around us these days ...
AI is helping farmers sequester more carbon in soil, improving agriculture’s sustainability profile
Our soil ... holds about double the amount of carbon that’s in the atmosphere, and almost three times the volume ...
Viewpoint: Activist superstition drives the opposition to genetically modified and gene edited crops
GMO opponents in the United States and worldwide are not concerned with rationally managing risks to minimize potential concerns and ...
Viewpoint: The FDA should not be bullied into taking away consumer’s choice to eat cell-grown meat
Consumers might already be weirded out by the prospect of eating lab-grown animal products, so the ideal product should taste ...
Viewpoint: Africa’s opportunity to develop crops that can weather climate change depends whether it embraces gene editing
South Africa’s agriculture faces increasing climate challenges, particularly for vulnerable crops such as fruit. Dr Peter Johnston, a climate scientist, highlights ...
What’s regenerative agriculture and what are its market prospects?
Regenerative agriculture focuses on improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing ecosystem services while also producing food and fiber. This ...
Threat assessment that US could fall behind China in developing cell-based meat prompts some Republicans to reverse opposition
What would it take for a Republican to support cultivated meat? Could it be China’s progress in the sector? That’s ...
How do farmers in Bangladesh feel about genetically modified crops?—A survey
GM ... crops play a crucial role in feeding the global population and ensuring food security for a larger number ...
Top 10 countries growing genetically modified (GM) crops
The United States had the largest area of genetically modified crops worldwide in 2023, at 74.4 million hectares, followed by ...
Viewpoint: Organic agriculture grain crisis?—What might be the impact if farming goes fully chemical-free organic?
[A] number of papers on going totally chemical-free suggest a significant impact. For instance, a meta-analysis from Nature concluded that ...
Will lab-based meat upend the trillion dollar global meat industry? Would it be any better for our health?
Worldwide, 80 billion animals are slaughtered every year for meat. Raising all those animals has already claimed most of the ...
‘I would never serve that slop to my kids’—Bipartisan support for Pennsylvania bill to ban cell-based meat
Seeking to protect the livelihood of farmers who produce meat products for Pennsylvania consumers, Rep. Tina Pickett (R-Bradford/Wyoming) is the ...
Soil footprint: Measuring soil degradation caused by farming
The “soil footprint” is emerging as a crucial concept in sustainable farming, measuring the impact of agriculture on soil erosion ...
Tastier and healthier Chardonnays in Italy: More sustainable fungal fighting gene-edited vines planted in Italian trial
“This is the first field trial with edited vines in Europe,” says Sara Zenoni, who teaches agricultural genetics at the ...
Precision breeding enable by gene editing edges closer to reality in the UK
The [British] Government has announced new laws to support precision breeding technology which will increase food production, reduce costs to ...
Insect farming (and eating) is booming in Africa but a backlash is growing
Insect farming is rapidly becoming a key player in sustainable. ... [I] as the fastest-growing sustainable protein industry in the ...
Feeding the Future: CRISPR gene editing key to preserving crop genetic diversity
Excessive farming of domesticated plants over the wild-type cultivars could threaten the conservation of the wild-type genetic variant causing genetic ...
‘Growing food in space isn’t exactly a walk in the park’
Picture a future where astronauts harvest fresh lettuce on the Moon and bake bread on Mars. It might sound like ...
Corruption, water scarcity, and outdated farming are undermining food security in Africa
Africa is grappling with a severe food insecurity crisis, with over 282 million people undernourished and more than a billion unable to ...
With urban expansion and reductions in arable land, vertical farming is thrust into the limelight
Vertical farming promises to revolutionize how we produce food in urban and extreme environments by optimizing plant growth through dynamic ...
Genetically modified mosquitoes could strengthen war on malaria
It’s been 127 years since British medical doctor Sir Ronald Ross discovered that mosquitoes in the Anopheles family are primarily responsible for transmitting malaria ...
Is there a market for hydroponically grown food?
Consumer behavior around food production remains largely disconnected from how the food they consume is actually grown. "The majority of ...
Once a pariah, genetically edited plants are coming to your garden center
The introduction of genetically modified plants into the consumer market brings with it both exciting opportunities and potential challenges. With ...
Pet owners are pushing for more sustainable food options
Pet food consumers are more likely to switch brands or products due to concerns about sustainability, according to a recent ...
