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.
Have preconceived opinions about big farms? Meet Iowa farmers
Iowa commodity growers are often demonized for what and how they grow, and monocultures and ethanol aren’t exactly healthy for the ...
What do breast milk and narwhal milk have in common? Possible basis for vegan cheese?
Counter Culture Labs takes its name pretty literally. It is a bio lab, for sure, complete with pipettes, carboys, microscopes, and ...
What’s behind knee jerk concerns about glyphosate, GMOs?
The world’s most commonly sprayed herbicide—glyphosate—is currently trapped in a familiar media cycle. The cycle goes something like this: 1) ...
Chinese citizens sue government over its Roundup approval process 27 years ago
Three Chinese citizens are taking China's Ministry of Agriculture to court in a bid to make public a toxicology report ...
Monsanto helped cover legal costs of Australian GM lawsuit
Global agribusiness Monsanto contributed to a West Australian farmer's legal costs in a battle over alleged contamination of his neighbour's ...
Weighing risks of glyphosate should lead to mindful use not elimination
Late last month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, issued a report ...
Plant breeding deathmatch: Mutagensis vs transgenesis
Mutations happen at a fairly constant rate and can occur every time a cell divides. Although we tend to think ...
GM tobacco aids in sustainable biofuel production at lower cost
Researchers will genetically modify tobacco plants to produce enzymes that can break down biomass from forest raw materials. This may ...
Exposing ‘charlatans’: Why Vani Hari’s days of popularity are waning
I am a friend of Yvette d’Entremont, A.K.A. Science Babe, and I am proud of her. She’s done a great ...
Ag industry fears foreign countries hold ‘veto’ over US-approved GMOs
The barrage of farmer lawsuits against a biotech developer could give foreign buyers more influence over genetically modified crops grown ...
Monsanto haters take note: How it plans to protect environment
Monsanto has been called one of the US’s most hated companies (see this, which is credible, and this, which is ...
Who’s real shill: Food Babe or #Science14?
I hear it almost every single day. Because I talk or write about science, and promote ideas consistent with the ...
Cultural brokers—environmental groups, prominent journalists—shape public discourse on GMOs
A Zurich-based think tank asks: “Who is influencing the way we think today? Whose ideas are determining ours?” To answer that ...
GMOs could save banana industry but could consumers accept it?
The international banana industry only has itself to blame for its vulnerability to panama disease, and faces annihilation if the ...
GMO distributors can be jailed in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan can jail any person - importers or salespersons – engaged in sale of genetically modified products in the country ...
GMO acreage increases globally, especially among small farmers
Farmers are growing substantially the number of acres they plant of genetically modified crops, reveal new figures by the International ...
Big Data comes to farming, thanks to Monsanto: Sustainable, higher yields–and controversy
David Friedberg, CEO of The Climate Corporation, expected pushback when he decided to sell his San Francisco-based big data company ...
What’s more natural: Paleo diets or GMOs?
The see-food diet was the first so-called Paleo diet, not today's popular fad, premised on the false idea that there ...
Modified broccoli reduces LDL-cholesterol
A broccoli variety modified to have two to three times more of the naturally occurring compound glucoraphanin, which is linked ...
Inside look at Monsanto’s Hawaii farm nursery
Spring is here and that means pretty soon farmers across the nation will be pulling equipment out of the shed ...
Chemophobia: Testing foods for glyphosate rises with fears over health risk
U.S. consumer groups, scientists and food companies are testing substances ranging from breakfast cereal to breast milk for residues of ...
Interview with Science Babe who took down Food Babe
Earlier this month, you probably would't have heard of Yvette d'Entremont, aka Science Babe. But after posting a Gawker article ...
Thousands of illnesses linked annually to organic foods
The World Health Organization used its annual World Health Day to focus on issues of food-borne illnesses and safety risks ...
European science academy links neonics to harm of many beneficial insects, not just bees
An influential European scientific body said on Wednesday that a group of pesticides believed to contribute to mass deaths of ...
US biotech regulations need serious weeding
The “corporate culture” at USDA toward the regulation of genetically engineered plants is unscientific, self-interested and inimical to progress in ...
Genebanks house 30 bean varieties that beat the heat of global warming
Amidst fears that global warming could zap a vital source of protein that has sustained humans for centuries, bean breeders ...
American Farm Bureau reinforces opposition to mandatory GMO labeling
The scientific consensus supporting GMO food production is overwhelming. It shows no signs of flagging. So it’s more than a ...
