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.
Would genetically modified salmon be considered kosher?
Many of us in this era of ecologically motivated dietary restrictions find ourselves editing our menu choices, but I wondered ...
Will synthetic biology face same fate as GMOs?
On a cold weekend last month, more than two thousand undergraduate scientists took over two levels of Boston’s Hynes Convention ...
Australian organics board reaffirms zero tolerance for GMOs
The group responsible for setting organic standards has rejected an application by the Western Australian Agriculture Department to allow a ...
Syngenta expects Chinese to OK GM corn embroiled in lawsuits
Syngenta AG expects to win Chinese government approval soon for imports of a type of genetically modified corn at the ...
Raw organic milk implicated in death of Australian child
Mountain View Organic are a food marketing company with high flown rhetoric about 'kind farming and good health practices". Mountain ...
21 European scientists call for public support of GMOs
In an open letter released last month, 21 out of the 27 most cited plant scientists in Europe pledged decision makers ...
Patent ending for first major GM crop, Roundup Ready soy, new era of open source GMO seeds
I argued in my 2013 book, The Infinite Resource, that the “seeds shouldn’t be patented” argument against GMOs and specifically against ...
Golden rice will not solve malnutrition or biodiversity loss
Golden rice is a product of genetically modified technology that is offered as a solution to vitamin D deficiency for ...
Deflating claims of oft-quoted anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith
Bucolic Fairfield, Iowa is home to Genetic-ID, a company founded by John Fagan to test crops and foodstuffs for ingredients ...
Nicaraguan enviro activists say GMOs would not alleviate drought crisis
A severe four-month drought during this year's “wet” season in Nicaragua hit agricultural production in two-thirds of the country’s 153 municipalities ...
Nassim Taleb is wrong: Black Swan more likely for non-GMO food than GM varieties
Much has been written about Nassim Taleb's coauthored paper arguing that the precautionary principle dictates that we should avoid GMOs because of ...
Why is LA trying to ban GMO crops?
Even if you hate the idea of genetically modified food, you would gain nothing from a Los Angeles City Council ...
Why Africa should embrace crop biotechnology
Uganda passed a Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy in 2008 and later drafted and tabled Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill which is ...
Response to Union of Concerned Scientists: Fears about Arctic apple are misleading
As a consumer and as an agricultural scientist, I’m looking forward to the introduction of the Arctic® apple, which is nearing ...
Oregon GM labeling proponents concede defeat
Supporters of Oregon's Ballot Measure 92 to require labeling of genetically modified foods conceded defeat Thursday. The Yes on 92 ...
Are organic farms more drought resistant?
The supposed productivity gaps between organic and conventional farming may be a lot smaller than thought, according to a new analysis ...
Study claims agroecology closes organic yield deficit with conventional farming
The more scientists actually study agroecology, the better it looks. The largest meta-analysis to date comparing yields of organic and ...
GMO labeling costly for those who don’t even care
Mandatory labeling of GM food in the United States will not only make all food more costly but also bamboozle ...
Proponents of organic diet craze reject GMOs, swear by health benefits
Over the past several years, the organic food craze has definitely grown. But some people feel that genetically modified foods ...
Kenyan research on GM maize must reach farmers
Dr Murenga Mwimali is the country co-ordinator of Water Efficient Maize for Africa. He was interviewed by AGATHA NGOTHO You ...
We can feed the world without chopping down more forests
Maybe this is obvious, but expanding our agricultural footprint to feed the growing population — cutting down forests, plowing prairies ...
Congress skeptical of benefits of mandatory GMO labeling law
The food industry is likely to find a receptive Congress come January in its fight against mandatory labeling of genetically ...
GMO yeast: One solution to omega-3 decline in salmon
When it comes to omega-3s, the message is clear: All salmon is a good choice. But that might soon change ...
Ontario farmers claim they are ‘bullied’ by proposed neonics ban
In November, the Ontario premier’s office and the ministry of the environment and climate change revealed its plan to restrict the ...
Can biotech help threatened bluefin tuna?
Of all the overfished fish in the seas, luscious, fatty bluefin tuna are among the most threatened. Marine scientist Goro ...
After education on GMOs, ‘idea became less scary’
A few weekends ago I made the four-hour drive from my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin to Northfield, Minnesota to visit ...
Avoiding GMOs based on precautionary principle is flawed logic
Some public commentaries proclaim that, on account of a philosophic notion called the Precautionary Principle, a moratorium or ban should be placed ...
