Daily Food & Agriculture 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.
Amid review of glypohsate, EPA official said he favors biopesticides
The Environmental Protection Agency has wrapped up its review of the world's most widely used herbicide and plans to release ...
Under pressure to manage both weeds and pollinators, Midwest farmers face perfect storm
Since the onset of spring, one kind of game-changing news after another has reached Iowa farmers. These announcements will affect ...
Why GMO-giant Monsanto made offer for Syngenta’s chemical-focused company
Over the last two decades Monsanto has cast off its century-long history as a chemical company and refashioned itself as ...
In wake of IARC carcinogenic warning, Colombian president urges end to spraying herbicide on coca plants
Authorities in Colombia have been told they must stop using Glyphosate the controversial herbicide, that is more commonly known by ...
Ugandan ruling party greenlights vitamin A enhanced GMO “super bananas”
Uganda's ruling party has approved a bill that will give the green light to super bananas and other genetically modified ...
Panera latest consumer-senstive food company to ditch controversial ingredients
I think 2015 will go down as the year that food manufacturers and restaurants started ditching ingredients based on consumer ...
Agroecology can ‘save the world’ from GMO-led industrial agriculture
Imagine the scenario: world food production has become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite who, backed by powerful ...
African rejection of hybrid and GMO seeds in favor of heirloom varieties promotes food crisis
Africa’s seed industry is complex and can be inefficient, with most farmers using the same seeds they have been planting for generations, unlike farmers ...
History of farming suggests science is not the enemy of natural and nutritious food
Many consumers have the impression that, until recently, food and food production was something little changed. This mistaken view is ...
Mark Bittman: Food movement has bigger issues to tackle than GMO labeling
There is some talk about the food movement’s winning. I’m not even sure such a thing as a food movement ...
After breeding non-allergenic soybean over 10 years ago, researchers achieve conventionally bred version
In the United States, nearly 15 million people and one in 13 children suffer from food allergy. Soybeans are one of ...
Panera creates ‘no-no’ ingredient list in response to consumer demand
In doing so, Panera Bread will join the growing ranks of food companies and restaurants that have announced plans to eliminate a ...
Why Chipotle’s GMO-free move got so much backlash
The last few days at Chipotle HQ could not have been much fun for the people running the marketing and ...
Playing God? Many faiths agree that tinkering with genes is out of bounds
Last fall, at the peak of the contentious, expensive fight over Oregon’s ballot measure to label genetically engineered foods, about ...
Food industry group appealing latest Vermont GMO labeling ruling
Grocery and food industry groups will appeal a recent federal court ruling that allowed Vermont’s GMO labeling law to go ...
Doctor Is In: Despite evidence of GMO safety, this doctor still skeptical
Chipotle announced plans this week to stop serving foods made with genetically modified ingredients — after being the first corporate ...
Millennials drive fast food to change: From non-GMO to antibiotic-free pledges
Millennials across the country are more aware of their food than ever before, from seeking out farmers markets to fill ...
One baboon gene could vastly improve lives of millions of African farmers
With one gene, molecular geneticist Steve Kemp may someday be able to boost the success of small farms across a huge swath of ...
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker irritates Twitter followers for being pro GM labeling
Cory Booker has a lot of fans among progressives — not just in New Jersey, but across the country. His ...
Chipotle’s move toward GMO-free supply chain will raise prices for consumers
Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread for years have led the fast-casual restaurant segment, and their moves away from genetically modified ...
Antibiotic use in livestock may pose health threat to farm workers
A new study by the researcher who has done the most to pin down the presence of “pig MRSA” in the United States ...
Pamela Ronald profile: Organic farming and GMOs can be ‘bedfellows’
Pamela Ronald is a plant pathologist and geneticist—a professor at the University of California, Davis whose lab has isolated genes from ...
Mythbusting: Little understood facts to calm chemophobia
All too often the use of the word “chemicals” in the news, in advertising and in common usage has the implication ...
Rapid DNA test identifies bacteria that can spoil beer, wine
Something very simple can throw that flavor off before most types of beer are even bottled, and cause further troubles ...
USDA advances approval of another GM potato, with lower sugar and blight resistance
USDA moved another variety of genetically engineered potatoes developed by J.R. Simplot Company forward in its approval process, the agency ...
Biofortifying rice with folate could prevent birth defects
Bolstering rice with a gene to produce more folate, or vitamin B9, could ward off birth defects, according to a ...
Farmers choose seeds, not corporations
For years now, there has been a myth going around the internet about how farmers seed options have been growing ...
