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.
GMO foods most likely to be served next
Currently, the list of genetically modified organisms that could end up at your dinner table (assuming you live in the ...
USDA considers categorizing GM sorghum as noxious weed
Word filtered from U.S. Department of Agriculture sources is that a genetically modified sorghum developed for use in cellulosic ethanol ...
Finding genetic traits in crops could help plants survive in warmer, drier world
Sometimes it pays to have wild and quirky relatives. That's certainly the case for staple crops that help feed the ...
Mining genetic wealth of agricultural gene banks
Agricultural gene banks hope soon to cease serving primarily as warehouses for plant seeds and start capitalizing on the often ...
Genetic descriptors published for Africa’s baobab—the ‘tree of life’
A new publication, 'Descriptors for Baobab,' opens the way for accelerated and better-standardized research into this iconic tree. This highly ...
Salt tolerant gene indentified in soybeans
A collaborative research project between Australian and Chinese scientists has shown how soybean can be bred to better tolerate soil ...
GM crops safer for farmers and consumers because less chemicals used
Don Lee, genetics professor at University of Nebraska, spoke to Susan Winsor, the managing editor of Corn and Soybean Digest, ...
Considering the three types of reasons people oppose GMO foods
When it comes to arguing about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) there is a big obstacle: the name GMOs describes things ...
Herbicide-tolerant crops still need diverse weed management
Crops that have been genetically modified (GM) to be tolerant to herbicides have been widely grown in the U.S. since ...
UK advisor holds up GMO crops as more environmentally friendly than organic
Organic farming could be worse for the climate than conventional farming methods, one of the government’s scientific advisers has said, ...
‘Non-GMO’ genetic tool helps yogurt fend off bacterial viruses
Two years ago, a genome-editing tool referred to as CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) burst onto the scene ...
Judge weighs arguments in Vermont GM labeling case
A federal judge is weighing whether to put the brakes on Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO labeling law before it even goes ...
Indiana joins other states with proposed GM labeling legislation
Advocates hoping to see labels on genetically modified foods have a Republican state senator as an unlikely ally in Indiana ...
Vandana Shiva teaches how not to communicate science
We can learn a lot about people from not just what they say, but how they choose to say it. ...
GMO plants can be used for biofuels
Biofuels have long been studied and, like many alternative fuels, given corporate subsidies by the government, but they haven't made much ...
Herbicides aren’t sole culprit in Monarch butterfly decline
Monarch butterflies are vanishing. Over the last 20 years, fewer and fewer of them have been making the long journey down to ...
GMO research on African crops shows promise
Over five decades ago, the world experienced a striking breakthrough in agriculture, the Green Revolution. This saved at least a billion lives ...
Dupont’s new GMO soybean is transfat free, benefitting consumers
For 37 years - since 1977 - breaded and fried white mushrooms have been a favorite in the food court ...
China extends permits on GM rice and corn research
The government has renewed permits allowing scientists to grow three varieties of genetically modified rice and corn in China, more ...
Anti-GM campaigners concerned over UK’s plans to plant GM crops in next few years
The government is preparing for the planting of GM crops in the UK by putting in place 'rules' to govern ...
Genes from rice and grapes crossed to develop heat-tolerant wheat
Kansas State University researchers are working on a transgenic wheat that would tolerate warmer temperatures during the critical grain filling ...
Scientists say blaming Bt cotton for Indian farmer suicides is unreasonable
Farmer suicides in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha area and other parts of the country have nothing to do with Bt cotton, scientists ...
Ugandan scientists develop disease-resistant banana, but law may prohibit it from reaching farmers
Banana bacterial wilt, a disease caused by Xanthomonas bacteria, is so devastating to banana and extremely burdensome and costly to ...
New vegan cheese uses human DNA to create protein
San Francisco-based iGem group said it found a way to make cheese proteins using genetic sequences found in mammals. The ...
‘Pour me a tall glass of transgenic orange juice’
Florida orchards are in danger because of citrus greening disease. Carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, an insect, the bacterium ...
Can new meatless burgers wean us off unsustainable beef?
I dumped meat a few weeks ago, and it was not an easy breakup. Some of my most treasured moments ...
Will gene editing and other new GM techniques sidestep controversy over ‘foreign’ genes?
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is developing genetically modified grass that would need less mowing, be a deeper green and be resistant to ...
