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.
Precision breeding tailors genome for fresher flowers
A pot of pretty petunias will practically sell itself, but petunias don’t retain their beauty for long. A joint Israeli-American ...
GMOs have health benefits not health risks
GM apples and potatoes were recently approved in the U.S. and Canada, but with some pushback from companies due to ...
Kevin Folta sets example on how to have civil conversation on GMOs
Dr. Kevin Folta, professor and chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, recently came to lecture ...
Argentine farmers accuse Monsanto of power play over GMO royalties
Argentine farmers, who have been confronting the government over export duties since 2008, are accusing the local branch of agribusiness ...
Would GMO labeling cause $500 increase in grocery bill?
A study by Cornell University Professor William Lesser found that if GMO labeling is required in New York, a family of ...
Smear campaign against glyphosate: ‘Consumers have a right to know when they’re being peddled a lie’
The anti-biotech activist Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farms CEO and recent White House nominee to a trade advisory committee, seems to ...
FBI: Chinese accused of stealing patented GMO seeds are national security threat
Does protecting America's lucrative genetically modified seed corn industry warrant the use of national security laws intended to fight terrorists ...
Anti-GMO groups lobby fast food restaurants to not sell GM apple or potato
Consumer advocacy groups are asking Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway and Dunkin' Donuts for commitments not to sell the genetically engineered ...
How high speed computers can team with genetic engineering to feed the world
Using high-performance computing and genetic engineering to boost the photosynthetic efficiency of plants offers the best hope of increasing crop ...
Political right not alone in scientific illiteracy: Left disregards science on GMOs, vaccines
It is tremendously ironic that the political left, which frequently attacks the right’s denial of evolution, is much more likely ...
Scientific American: Why trumped up glyphosate controversy obscures benefits of GM technology
It’s been awhile since I’ve written on GMOs, but it may be time to start again. Recently, a huge amount ...
From pink pineapple to purple tomatoes, next wave of GMO foods will have health benefits
Cancer-fighting pink pineapples, heart-healthy purple tomatoes and less fatty vegetable oils may someday be on grocery shelves alongside more traditional ...
EPA to place restrictions on glyphosate due to weeds developing resistance
U.S. regulators will put new restrictions on the world's most widely used herbicide to help address the rapid expansion of ...
Sharing genomic data speeds cassava breeding for African farmers
When the time comes to harvest cassava, a subsistence farmer in Africa – often a woman – hauls them to ...
Vanillin: Forerunner of synthetic biology flavors
Both the natural and chemical methods to make vanilla are costly and environmentally burdensome, but a new approach using the ...
Response to US-Right to Know: ‘Scientists live by evidence not PR’
The most hilarious part about US-RTK is that they are so clueless on science that they'll actually print the stuff ...
Australian farm group advocates lifting of GMO ban
Leading Australian advocates for genetically modified (GM) crops have called for State moratoriums on the science to be dissolved. AusBiotech hosted ...
‘Clueless’ how science is done, U.S. Right ‘Two’ Know issues new wave of FOI GMO demands
Previously, it was reported that 14 Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) requests had been filed seeking the correspondence of academic ...
Breaking news from The Onion: Monsanto’s latest GMO crop strain yields record amount of litigation
Agricultural biotech giant Monsanto unveiled its latest strain of genetically modified corn Wednesday, claiming that the new, hardier seed yields ...
Better face for GMOs: Drought resistance and resistance to ‘superpest’
Much of the current criticism of GMOs rests on the currently-available varieties, dominated by RoundUp Ready (herbicide-resistant) and Bt (pesticide-producing) ...
Why reporters should confront an indefensible position on GMOs with scientific consensus
I recently spoke at Cornell about the public GMO discourse–who has shaped it and how some commonly held perceptions have taken ...
Anti-GMO argument: Chemicals in food harm you–OMG don’t eat killer kale!
Unfortunately I’m the bearer of bad news today. Kale – one of the biggest staples in a healthy lifestyle and ...
USAID, University of California partnering to develop rice strains compatible with challenging African climate, soil
Rice is a staple food in many African countries and constitutes a major part of the diet in many others ...
UK Independent editorial: Britain can’t afford to miss out on GMO benefits
Two decades ago, when the very real scare over “mad cow” disease undermined people’s trust in the safety of the ...
Monsanto chief: We did not grasp depth of consumer concerns over first GMOs
The American company that produced the world’s first genetically modified crop has admitted for the first time that its “hubris” ...
Sustainability proponents talk GMOs, health, superweeds and patents
As the legal frenzy makes clear, genetic engineering elicits extreme reactions. It’s decried as humanity’s final untethering from the natural ...
Organic-funded anti-GMO group calls for investigation of whether USDA covered up dangers
A "watchdog" organization is calling on the U.S. Senate and House agriculture committees and the inspector general at the USDA ...
