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.
How anti-biotech groups leveraged fear of pesticides to pass Kauai anti-GMO bill
The feast of fear that was intentionally served up to pass Bill 2491, the pesticide/GMO regulatory bill, is now serving ...
Anti-biotech activists threaten McDonald’s to spurn GM potatoes
J.R. Simplot, a company that produces over 3 billion pounds of potatoes each year, hopes to soon add a genetically engineered variety ...
RNAi researcher accuses Monsanto of muzzling her research, hiding risks of GMOs
After nearly 30 years studying how plants use their genes to defend against viruses, Vicki Vance, a professor at the ...
Investors in engineered salmon skittish over retailers’ caution and regulatory delays
The Obama administration has stalled for more than four years on deciding whether to approve a fast-growing salmon that would ...
Genetically engineered poplar trees break down more easily, hailed as environmental boon
Researchers have genetically engineered poplar trees with lignin that breaks down more easily, opening the door to cheaper biofuels and ...
Researchers develop new approach to compare GM and non-GM foods
Does genetic manipulation causes unintended changes in food quality and composition? Are genetically modified (GM) foods less nutritious than their ...
Canada should make other GM crops available, based on canola success
In a spring when a record Canadian crop seems landlocked by a struggling grain handling system ill-equipped to deliver a ...
Chinese consumers press their own cooking oil for fear of GM soybean oil
Back in 2010, it was the reports of "gutter oil" - restaurants cooking with recycled waste oil - that disgusted ...
Food companies need greater transparency to educate Americans
Grocery shoppers are entering a new age of concern about what they're putting in their bodies -- and we're not ...
California GMO labeling more about politicization of science
California State Sen. Noreen Evans wants any food that contains a genetically modified ingredient to have a special label declaring it - ...
Filipino farmers fight against ruling on Bt crops
The Supreme Court in the Philippines has been asked to nullify a decision of the Court of Appeals stopping the ...
Sensational headlines should not cloud reality of India’s GM crop success
Too often, we let emotion crowd out the facts of a news story. We base our opinions on the most ...
GMOs, herbicides, insecticides vital to feeding another two billion people
Uncontrolled weeds are a major contributor to world hunger, says Leonard Gianessi, consultant to The CropLife Foundation based in Washington ...
Grocers claim GMO labeling would increase costs and grocery bills
If individual states start requiring the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food, it would have a negative impact on agriculture ...
Anti-GMO Ecologist magazine claims ‘extreme levels’ of glyphosate residue in GM soy
Food and feed quality are crucial to human and animal health. Surprisingly, almost no data exist in the scientific literature ...
Monsanto launches “$hill Bucks” effort to sway GMO debate
The biotechnology industry, struggling to gain acceptance for their products, has looked at social media as a wild animal they’ve ...
University extension educator urges farmers to know basic biotech crop science
Farmers need to know the basic biotech crop science to educate consumers about what they do. Jenny Rees, a University ...
Regulation threatens food industry, says former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Carlos Gutierrez returned to Michigan after a decade out of the food industry with some advice: Amid strict business regulations, ...
Oregon student group campaigns for GMO labeling
In February, Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPRIG) set off on its lead petition campaign for the 2014 winter term. With ...
Chinese officials accused of covering up illegal GM crops
Agriculture officials in Hainan have been accused of trying to suppress evidence that genetically modified crops have been grown illegally ...
Borlaug’s Green Revolution: Neither green, nor revolutionary
The Rockefeller Foundation, always around for funding long-term investments such as food and agriculture which the US government views as ...
Glow-in-the-dark trees as street lights
In the not-so-distant future, your evening walk could be lit by gently glowing trees rather than standard street lights. That ...
Zimbabwean farmers urged to adopt Bt cotton
Zimbabwe must seriously consider the adoption of Bt cotton by farmers to revamp production and revive the textile and clothing ...
Why political partisans don’t like facts
To paraphrase an observation attributed to the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, people are entitled to their own opinions, not ...
Misguided Californian bill panders to small group of anti-science alarmists
In a victory for California’s radical anti-technology minority, S.B. 131 passed the state’s senate Health Committee by a vote of ...
Leading Nigerian politician pushes for bio-safety law
The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria, Aminu Tambuwal, has indicated that the passage of the Bio-safety Bill ...
Jackson county could be first in Oregon to ban growing GMOs
If voters approve, Jackson County would become the first in Oregon to ban growing genetically modified crops. A local farmers’ ...
