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.
Gourmet mold sausage? Food waste inspiring Michelin-starred chefs
Food waste is a huge issue in the U.S., where an estimated 30% to 40% of the food supply is tossed out ...
Seed bank ransacked as Sudan’s civil war destroys a critical resource in a starving nation
More than 100 universities have been damaged or destroyed, according to Mohamed Hassan, president of the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences, ...
Anti-biotechnology campaigners embrace classic crops, are suspicious of hybrid varieties and claim genetic modification violates nature. Here’s a primer on the differences
Understanding how GMOs differ in traits, development, and farming benefits is important for farmers and consumers. Dr Eliud Kireger of ...
Africa’s most pressing need is more food. Here’s how technology could turn desperation into productivity
Africa stands at the crossroads of its agricultural revolution, confronting the dual challenge of urbanisation and a growing population. However, ...
Illinois joins growing list of states debating whether to ban cultivated meat
Two months after Florida’s ban on cultivated meat came into effect, and a month before one goes live in Alabama, ...
In Canada, cows and other livestock animals are responsible for 40 percent of methane emissions – a potent greenhouse gas. Here are some solutions
Can a shot with anything other than a bullet stifle a cow’s methane burps? If the shot is a vaccine, ...
Politicization of food: Italy’s far right has turned food into a political battleground
Since its rise to power in 2022, a coalition of far right parties led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ...
Organic farming and the ‘healthy foods’ industry have generated many food myths. Here are 7.
In today’s grocery stores, it’s hard to avoid the barrage of labels plastered across nearly every food product. From “organic” ...
Alternative fats from gene-edited plants and algae could pose a challenge to unsustainable palm oil and animal fat industries
With many traditional fats – from canola to coconut – under scrutiny for high saturated content or significant deforestation, many ...
Ghana pushes a tech-based sustainable agricultural revolution as climate change looms
Climate-resilient crop varieties have proven crucial for the sustenance of agricultural productivity in the face of changing climatic conditions. In ...
‘Chemical-free weed management has presented challenges’: London council’s decision to ban glyphosate flops, leads to urban weed jungle
As any gardener who has spent the summer bent over their patio knows, tackling weeds is no easy feat. So ...
10 years after the introduction GM eggplant in Bangladesh, public support for biotechnology innovation grows
The agricultural sector in Bangladesh is currently facing numerous challenges. The country is currently endeavoring to adopt modern biotechnological tools, ...
Climate-adaptive crops open door to a ‘new era of gene-edited food’
Genetic engineering remains extremely contentious in Europe. This matters because resistance to food altered by biotechnology is holding back development ...
Regulatory barriers stunting the European cultivated meat revolution
A 2022 study found that food production accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions, and around ...
How to reduce chemical usage? European study concludes GM and gene-edited crops are a solution, proposed relaxed EU regulations would limit innovation
Can modern breeding technologies, such as genome editing, contribute to reduced pesticide usage? This question has been accentuated by a ...
‘Mold burgers’: The source of your favorite sandwich might be a bit unconventional in the future
Genetically altered mold could be the future of food, providing tasty, healthy and environmentally friendly snacks. New research suggests that ...
Cultured meat is just too expensive to produce to scale up? That could change dramatically, and soon
A pioneering study unveils the first affordable method for producing cultivated meat. The research highlights that continuous manufacturing effectively overcomes ...
Blockchain, AI, vertical farming: Here are 8 ways modern technology is ramping up food production
We are living in an era of rapid technological advancements. This naturally shows the impact of modern technology in various ...
Viewpoint: Organic mirage: The poor are paying the price for the backlash against agrochemicals and crop biotechnology
Thanks to the Green Revolution—a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw significantly increased crop yields and agricultural production—it became ...
UK becomes first country to greenlight cultivated meat pet food sales
The Environment Department (Defra) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) gave regulatory clearance to start-up Meatly to sell ...
Calorie counting? AI could help, bite by bite
[R]esearchers in Canada are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze food bite-by-bite. All diners have to do is record themselves eating ...
A Constitutional battle looms in the meat industry’s efforts to convince states to ban lab-grown meat
Florida’s ban on cultivated meat is being challenged in federal court in a lawsuit that was filed [August 12]. The case ...
Fact Check: No, we have not ‘perfected’ technology to put vaccines in lettuce and tomatoes
A post on X (formerly Twitter) claims that the University of California has perfected the technology to put vaccines in lettuce ...
Viewpoint: These global organizations and billionaire foundations are coordinating a ‘war’ against sustainably transforming our food system
Elite billionaire organizations and foundations, government agencies and activist pressure groups are funding and coordinating a global war on modern agriculture, ...
Which foods can lower dementia risk?
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead of an inflammatory diet focused on red and processed meats and ultraprocessed foods, such as ...
Viewpoint: The agroecology movement is turning against technology in agriculture, and the poor suffer
The World Economic Forum says the world faces a new crisis, "One-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from food ...
Glyphosate poisoning oatmeal? Independent fact checker challenges viral social media video and claims
Social media users are actively discussing the various qualities—both good and bad—of foods, particularly grains and other related products. However, ...
