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.
Former US Secretary of Agriculture Glickman criticizes organic industry for misleading marketing
A blockbuster report by the scientific-integrity watchdog Academics Review examines the last 25 years of academic and organic industry market ...
Dispute erupts over report Chinese military may ban GM food to ‘protect soldiers’ health’
Genetically modified (GM) grain has been banned for security reasons from consumption by military personnel in the city of Xiangyang, ...
Consumer Union’s Michael Hansen accused of misleading legislators on GMO safety
The ideologically driven, anti-technology campaign to restrict access to safe, sustainable and affordable foods improved through biotechnology got a boost ...
Cornell GMO labeling study: 25,000 labeled items could add up to $1500 to NY family food costs per year
Current U.S. food labeling policy does not require the labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods. Voluntary labeling is an option, ...
Mandatory labeling of GMOs does not provide consumer choice
During a short time period in the late 1990s, some food products in the European Union were labeled as containing ...
Mark Bittman’s tepid endorsement of GM overshadowed by shallow attacks on modern agriculture
Does New York Times food writer Mark Bittman get anything right? I doubt it. His recent commentary, “Leave Organic Out of ...
Atlantic: GMO labeling grassroots movement not supported by science
In more than 30 years in politics, Bobby Starr had never seen anything like it. The Vermont state senator, a Democrat, ...
Wheat growers’ association president wants GM wheat introduced to improve crops
Farmers need a strong voice in Washington, but also in their respective state capitols, notes the current president of the ...
Dolly and other animals cannot be patented says court, rattling cloning proponents
Dolly the sheep enjoyed a brief and highly publicized life as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell before ...
Big Ag fights back against New York’s GMO labeling bill
Recently, the lead sponsor of New York’s GMO labeling bill went on public radio and said that relabeling foods wouldn’t ...
GM crop licensing blocked in Lahore, Pakistan; National Bio Safety Committee’s power challenged
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court has issued a stay against issuance of licences for genetically modified ...
Food companies need to ditch defensive strategy and launch positive campaign about GM crops’ merits
If biotech’s big guns want to seize the initiative in the GMO debate, they should ditch their defensive strategy (telling ...
Small-scale African farmer calls for Kenya to lift ban on GMOs
United States President Barack Obama’s ringing endorsement of biotechnology in agriculture has the potential to inspire hearts and minds in ...
Argentine neuroscientist who challenged safety of glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup dies
Dr. Andres Carrasco, an Argentine neuroscientist who challenged pesticide regulators to re-examine one of the world's most widely used weed ...
64 countries that have GMO labeling laws
Sixty-four nations enforce consumer "right-to-know" laws on GMO food, while the United States has little regulatory framework surrounding genetically modified ...
Anti-GMO SHAKA Movement paying $5 per signature collected in support of petition to ban GMOs in Maui
Activists pushing for a moratorium on genetically modified farming in Maui County are stepping up their efforts to gather signatures ...
Readers react to Los Angeles Times’ editorial pointing out flaws in California’s GMO labeling bill
The Times points out many of the flaws in legislation (SB 1381) proposed in the California Senate that would require ...
Busting organic myth: Pesticide residues widely present in organic foods
There are several different reasons people are willing to pay more for organic produce, but many consumers do so believing that it ...
Pakistan needs strong regulatory system and neutral biosafety committee for GM crops
The country is heading for commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops, in the absence of a strong regulatory system, trained ...
Ghana Public Health Association calls for toxicological tests on GMOs before reaching market
The Ghana Public Health Association (GPHA) has called for detailed transparent toxicological tests on all Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) before ...
Frosty response to Arctic Apples from Canadian grocers
The genetically modified Arctic Apple is expected to get a frosty response from some grocery stores across the province if ...
Northeast Dairy Foods Association criticizes Vermont leaders for ‘acting rashly’ on GMO labeling
The recent signing of the food-labeling bill by Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is unfortunate on many levels. Gov. Shumlin had ...
Non-GMO and organic food supplier claims GMOs not needed to feed world
For a growing global population facing dwindling resources, non-GMO plant-based proteins are the future, says 29-year-old non-GMO and organic soybean ...
Storify: Would shouting stop if GMOs were labeled?
Many people think that labeling GMOs is a simple bit of text. And that if we just would put something ...
Mark Bittman’s moderation on GMOs may be too late to rescue foodies links to fear tactics
For GMO opponents, it’s been a good news/bad news week. The good news: Vermont became the first state to mandate the labeling ...
Progressive’s dilemma: Can Big Ag Monsanto shed it’s bad guy ‘evil’ reputation?
It all used to be so easy. There were the good guys, us, and there were the bad guys, them. Then I meandered ...
GMO labeling laws would push higher costs from producers to consumers
Despite the ever-growing ways that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates what Americans can consume, FDA does not currently regulate genetically ...
