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.
Big Food needs to get behind GMO labeling standard to prevent ‘hodgepodge’ of state bills
Tiny Vermont is on the verge of giving Big Food a huge headache. Late last month, the Vermont legislature passed ...
Nigeria needs to adopt latest technology in farming to achieve food sufficiency by 2015
The advice was that Nigerian should learn to key into world best practices by adopting the latest technology if they ...
Video: Inside Vermont’s GMO labeling controversy
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expected to sign a bill on Thursday mandating the labeling of genetically modified foods. That ...
Renewed push to suspend agreement prohibiting GM crop production in Nicoya, Costa Rica
The Federation of Guanacaste Municipalities (FEMUGA – Federación de Municipalidades de Guanacaste) has requested that Nicoya’s Municipal Council suspend the ...
Vermont’s GMO labeling bill is a “mess”
Before most legislatures built in their own capacity for doing deep analyses of bills before they’re passed, we used to ...
Why the love for new technology in gadgets but not new technology in farming?
Thinking about the March Against Monsanto, what do people do to vent their frustrations at corporations like this one? They ...
Do Michael Pollan’s criticisms of GMOs make science sense? (Answer: No)
Michael Pollan, a UC-Berkeley journalism professor, activist, author, and journalist, is often portrayed as a civil debater who can fairly argue ...
Can Vermont’s GMO labeling bill stand up to legal challenge?
Vermont’s GMO labeling bill is expected to be challenged in the courts soon after it is signed by the Governor. The two biggest ...
Video: Ohio tenth grader’s anti-GMO mini-doc wins C-Span award
Most people looking for answers about genetically modified organisms will simply take to the Internet. Andrew Demeter, a 10th grade student at Notre ...
Food industry should support and help guide GM labeling law to diffuse debate
Food production is a complicated, messy system. Labeling is easy to call for, but hard to actually work out. But the ...
Indian farmer suicides: Compelling media narrative with no basis
In his Collide-a-Scape column, Keith Kloor quotes from The Economist’s Demography and Development blog, several months ago: Facts can be stubborn – and ...
Consumers Union claims ideology not issue, cites “safety and economic concerns” for proposed GMO ban in Jackson, Oregon
The Mail Tribune urges readers, in their April 27 editorial, to "Believe science, not ideology, in GMO debate." Consumers Union, ...
African farmers need to be involved in biotechnology debate
African agricultural biotechnology experts say involving farmers in the biotechnology debate will encourage them to make informed choices and give ...
Milestone reached: 4 billionth acre of biotech crops planted globally
It’s no small number - four billion acres of biotech crops have now been planted globally. The impressive mark was met and ...
Los Angeles Times editorial: California GMO labeling bill promotes “scare campaign”
The scientific evidence on genetically engineered food, which has been around for two decades, indicates that it is as safe ...
eBook Lowdown on GMOs: What it’s like not to know anything about GMOs
This article is adapted from the chapter “On What It’s Like Not To Know Squat about GMOs” from the ebook ...
No right to deprive someone of safety tested, life-saving, vitamin-enhanced Golden Rice
The blind girl lurched toward me across the parking lot at Tirta Empul temple, mewling. A whitish haze coated her eyes, ...
Monsanto using biotech methods to speed up traditional breeding
Say the term “genetically modified organism,” or GMO, and you’re bound to get some strong opinions. But what is it? And should ...
Black Swan author’s paper on precautionary GM food risks indulges in “fear mongering”
Recently, a paper on the precautionary principle in relation to genetically modified foods has been making rounds in the anti-GMO social media ...
Plant geneticist Paul Gepts says polarized GM discussion endangers innovation
Whether you call them transgenic, genetically engineered or GMO crops, the fever-pitched debate about Monsanto misses the bigger picture by ...
Cell biologist Rebecca Rupp: I’m pro-GMO and here’s why
We all know that there are topics that are best to avoid at public dinners. Religion and politics usually top ...
Similac baby formula will not get GMO label as Abbott rejects shareholder call
An Abbott Laboratories shareholder proposal to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its Similac infant formula range received about 5 ...
US at final stages of approving next generation GM herbicide-resistant crops, galvanizing activists
Two key federal agencies are in the final stages of approving a new herbicide-resistant crop “system” that would constitute the ...
GMO debate in infographics and charts
One of the most debated subjects involving agriculture today is the production of genetically modified crops or (GMOs). Although these ...
GMO labeling would jack prices and costs with farmers and food producers hit worst
Even though labeling food with genetically modified ingredients is creating a distinction without a difference, the costs would be real ...
If you believe GMOs are bad, read this
Agriculture might not strike you as humanity’s first scientific endeavor. Familiar images of farmers tilling their fields or cowboys tending ...
Hawaii ‘grassroots’ anti-GMO rebellion run by Washington-based Center for Food Safety
On the 11th floor of the Gold Bond Building, on the edge downtown Honolulu, is the brain trust of Hawaii’s ...
