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.
Nassim Taleb escalates ‘boorish attacks’ on GMO science supporters
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Communicating science to lay ...
Scotland accused of playing politics, subverting science with GMO ban
Scotland’s government has decided to prohibit the growing of genetically modified crops. Their main rationale is to avoid any possibility that premium ...
China develops non-GMO vitamin enhanced “golden scallop” that could address malnutrition
Chinese scientists have developed the world's first golden scallop in what they say could be a major advancement in reducing ...
Greenpeace provokes India’s ire: Crumbling credibility and waning power of global activist power
Editor's Note: Greenpeace has led an aggressive campaign against GMOs in India, demanding that they be banned. It's mounted high ...
Bangladesh’s Bt brinjal, maligned by activists, reduces pesticide use, boosts farmer profits
Brinjal is a popular vegetable which is grown year round all over Bangladesh. The brinjal shoot and fruit borer is ...
Activist groups, USRTK have right to demand transparency from biotech scientists
The backlash against transparency is underway and is likely to inform how we interpret the scientific literature for years to come. In the ...
Can Golden Rice, other nutritionally enhanced crops, fulfill promise to reduce malnutrition?
Despite public health and humanitarian efforts, it is estimated that at least 3.1 million children die each year and 161 ...
Media gets it wrong: There are no GMO peanuts
OLé peanut, a new Spanish peanut variety released earlier this year by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and the Oklahoma ...
GMO citrus resistant to greening disease successfully grown in Florida
Southern Gardens Citrus, a large Florida citrus growing and processing operation, is growing genetically modified fruit that’s resistant to the ...
Organs from transgenic pigs could address transplant organ shortage
Researchers have been shattering organ survival records in xenotransplantation, or between-species organ transplants. The researchers have kept a pig heart alive ...
Australian senators support GMOs as environmentally friendly, scientifically sound
Australian Federal Senators have backed a motion supporting genetically modified (GM) crops for being an environmentally friendly farming technology supported by ...
Kenya to lift GMO ban to help fight hunger
The Kenyan government will lift the ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in two months, Deputy President William Ruto has ...
Can GMO super corals meet the challenge of global warming?
With the world’s coral reefs increasingly threatened by warmer and more acidic seas, scientists are selectively breeding corals to create ...
Next generation GMOs? Monsanto experiments with modifying crops by spraying them with RNA
Using RNA interference technology, which temporarily turns off the activity of a gene, Monsanto thinks it has hit on an alternative to ...
Science fiction? Hollywood weighs in on GMOs
Actress and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow recently appeared on Capitol Hill to promote GMO labeling. We applaud her willingness to get involved in the political ...
GMOs protect farm laborers, reduce carbon emissions and are safe to eat.
Unsure about biotechnology? There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Although biotech can improve people’s lives, it can be hard to get ...
A short history of GMOs, from prehistoric times to today
Humans have been altering the genetics of organisms for over 30,000 years, but how did the practice of selective breeding ...
Genetically engineered bacteria could monitor water contamination, detect mining waste
A team of young scientists in Canada is developing a fascinating way to detect water contamination. Their box, called the ...
Can GMOs fight hunger in the face of climate change?
More people die annually from chronic hunger than from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. Many of the world’s hungry live in ...
GM seaweed produces nutritious food fast, fights global warming, tastes like bacon
Dulse is the pulse of a potential food revolution that could play out in grocery stores and diets across America. And ...
‘Blood on their hands’? Withdrawal of Golden Rice study for non science reasons feeds anti-GMO fervor
A 2012 article in the nutrition literature might have been the most momentous contribution to public health worldwide since Dr. Jonas Salk’s announcement ...
European scientists criticize Scotland’s GMO ban
The Scottish government is to ban the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops. Here are a selection of reactions to ...
Kevin Folta: When science literacy threatens anti-GMO activist beliefs, they attack teachers
You'd swear by the hate-filled rhetoric that I just threw a pillowcase of kittens into a wood chipper. Activists everywhere delight ...
Neil Young embraces GMOs to prolong his life, but tries to block benefits for others
Neil Young: Grammy-award winning musician and GMO-hater? That’s the clear message from Young’s latest album, released earlier this summer. “The Monsanto Years,” ...
Surveys show scientifically literate less likely to fear GMOs
The debate over GMO safety has come to Congress. Americans’ concerns about GM foods are providing the backdrop: A majority of ...
Scotland banning GMOs over objections of Scottish farmers
Scotland is to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) produce, the country's rural ministry has announced. Rural affairs secretary Richard ...
Industry-University GMO relationship: Complicated reality exploited by activists
Concern over ties between academia and industry is legitimate, but often overblown, and can be used to justify witch hunts. There is the ...
