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.
Disgust over ‘unnaturalness’ of GMOs prime reason for opposition
Feelings of disgust are often immune to rationality. And with good reason: evolutionarily, disgust is an incredibly adaptive, life-saving reaction. We find ...
GM grass for dairy cows needs commercial partner, consumer acceptance
Some Victorian dairy farmers want the opportunity to grow genetically modified ryegrass. However they concede community acceptance of GM is ...
Greenpeace acts like corporations in agenda to discredit corporations
Recently, the issue of the amount of sugar in soft drinks was in the headlines. In the ensuing discussion, there were ...
Fruit tree gene could prevent GM cross-pollination with other plants
Genetically modified crops have long drawn fire from environmentalists, who worry that there could be contamination of organic food or ...
Rep. DeFazio misleadingly links monarch butterfly decline solely to GMOs
Monarch butterflies are an unexpected victim of the widespread adoption of genetically modified crops, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said last ...
Will Ugandan farmers get to plant GM banana?
Bill Gates will be sharing his vision of how technology will revolutionize life for the world's poor by 2030 by ...
Media should examine bee age, not neonics to understand disappearing bees
Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder has always interested me, because I’m interested in insect pathology – and this is probably the ...
Salt-tolerant wheat can grow in difficult soil, ensure food security in changing climate
Researchers in Australia have developed a form of salt-tolerant wheat that could help address the global food crisis by allowing ...
Fox News embarrasses itself as urologist, medical professor opine (wrongly) about GMOs
If you think you’re getting accurate science from Fox News’ Sunday Housecall, you may want to think again. A segment they ...
Big Ag uses social media to twist GMO debate
Many consumers and food activists use social media platforms to stay informed and engage in important debates about the future ...
Non-browning apple approved … Now comes the scare campaign?
The "rubber stamp" of regulatory approval, that takes millions of dollars and more than a decade to get, has been finally bestowed ...
Does it contain GMOs or protect rainforests? App scans food, provides label alternative
A new smartphone app may help concerned consumers bring social and environmental justice to the grocery store by supplying information ...
Parallel universe of scientists who doggedly oppose GMOs
A critical part of the scientific process is the conversation phase after the experimentation is done. Scientists share their findings with ...
Can color-changing flowers help change minds of GMO skeptics?
Nikolai Braun and Keira Havens, the two entrepreneurial scientists behind the Fort Collins, Colorado-based company Revolution Bioengineering, are in pursuit of ...
Organic agriculture’s low yields aren’t sustainable
The United Nations has estimated that food production will need to nearly double from 2008 levels by the year 2050 to ...
Indian farmers say GM cotton reduces pesticide use, improves yields
The debate over genetically modified crops rears its head every now and then, but for many farmers, it is an ...
GM ryegrass for cows that could boost milk production 15% faces opposition in Australia
Daily farmers in Victoria Australia are debating the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) ryegrass as peak representative group, United ...
Survey of European attitudes on GMO milk suggests opposition softening
Public perceptions about genetically modified (GM) food products is shifting from wariness to a more positive attitude as I discovered ...
Producers of 70% of Africa’s food, women farmers shackled by GMO opponents
As a farmer in Ghana, I see the problems in farming every day. Farmers struggle with everything from the unpredictability of ...
Cardboard tasting tomatoes? Cutting edge genetic breeding to the rescue
At Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon’s only land-grant university, Jim Myers is quietly pursuing some of the most exciting vegetable ...
Young food scientists on why they stood up to Food Babe
In late January, a group of students pursuing graduate degrees in food science published an open letter to Vani Hari, ...
GMO seeds boost corn yields more than 40%
Throughout human history, as the world's population has grown, so, too, has the amount of arable land converted into farmland ...
How Food Babe mobilized an army against GMOs and chemicals
Over the past three years, Vani Hari has rapidly become one of the most popular voices on nutrition in mainstream ...
In wake of new EU GMO restrictions, Wales proposes further tightening
On January 13, the European Union (EU) voted in favour of amending legislation in Europe that will allow Member States ...
Is there gap in federal regulation of newer GMOs?
Critics say a loophole in federal regulations for genetically engineered crops will backfire against biotech companies. Under current rules, USDA ...
Longshot federal GMO labeling bill reintroduced: ‘GM crops force farmers to buy more pesticides’
Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut along with Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., held a press ...
USDA grants approval of nonbrowning Arctic apple
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Healthy Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its decision to deregulate the first ...
