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.
What happened to the middle in the GMO debate?
The debate surrounding genetically modified organisms, often called GMOs, is an absolute mess. A huge part of the argument stems ...
Monsanto’s SmartStax maize ‘to be approved for growth in October’ in EU
A controversial, genetically modified super-maize from Monsanto is set to be approved for cultivation across the European Union by late ...
On voters’ plates: genetically engineered crops
Get ready for a food fight. When Washington voters decide Initiative 522 this fall, they will do more than determine whether to ...
Plant geneticist Kevin Folta explains GMO process in foods
When humans began to farm between ten and twenty thousand years ago, they took the seeds from their best edible ...
Visit to vandalized Golden Rice field trial
On August 9 and 10, we traveled overland 320 kilometers to the Bicol region in Southern Luzon in the Philippines ...
African countries slowly warming up to the idea of GM crops
While South Africa has long grown genetically modified (GM) crops, resistance from across most of the continent is set to ...
GM rice delivers antibodies against deadly rotavirus
A strain of rice genetically engineered to protect against diarrhoeal disease could offer a cost-effective way to protect children in ...
Agriculture expert to become first scientist CEO of Monstanto India
A 24-year agriculture veteran, Dr Gyanendra Shukla, Ph.D. (Agriculture Botany) and MBA, recently took over as Regional Lead and CEO, ...
Scotland: Farmers buck GM ban in hopes to reduce pesticide use
Recently, the UK Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, called on the European Union to relax strict restrictions on growing GM crops ...
Details of Washington State’s GM food labeling bill released
If Washington State's Initiative 522 passes, raw agricultural products that are genetically engineered, and processed foods with such ingredients, will have to ...
‘Golden Rice’ research continues despite militants’ attack
MANILA - Research work on an experimental rice variety will continue despite an attack by militants who destroyed a test ...
Biotechnology is panacea for Africa’s green revolution
Answering a question on whether Africa really needs [biotechnology], Mrs Shakirat O. Ajenifujah-Solebo, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of the ...
The psychology of distrusting GMOs
Psychologists have long observed that there is a continuum in what we perceive as natural or unnatural. As the psychologist Robert Sternberg wrote in ...
GMOs and Science Denialists: A GMO Primer
Liberals often have a smug sense of superiority over conservatives when it comes to science literacy. True enough, a lot ...
Mark Lynas: It’s time to ignore anti-GMO activists
Fifteen years ago I was an anti-GMO activist, determined to ensure that biotechnology was never adopted. I destroyed crops in ...
Oregon wheat contamination still a mystery
On Monday, investigators working with the US Department of Agriculture's plant inspection agency APHIS released the first progress update in ...
Argentine scientists develop virus resistant GM potato
Argentine scientists have developed potato plants resistant to Potato Virus Y (PVY), a disease that reduces crop yields from 20 ...
Lab-grown burgers cannot provide a secure future for Africa
Sergey Brin, the billionaire American businessman who co-founded Google, pays a Dutch scientist to develop a burger from stem cells ...
Golden Rice trial vandalized
According to the Business Mirror, a farmer group called Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bikol (Peasant Movement of Bicol, or KMB) and ...
Kauai anti-GMO bill deferred to September
The Kauai County Council unanimously deferred to September 9 a controversial proposal to demand disclosure of pesticide use and genetically ...
Hawaii: Big Island council withdraws GE bill after discussion
No decision on the GMO prohibition bill at the Hawaii County Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Mass Transit. Bill ...
Overcoming the “ick” factor key to understanding GMOs
One of the greatest obstacles to technological progress, especially but not only in areas such as food and medicine, has ...
UK debate: Is opposition to GM food really just superstition?
Green party leader Natalie Bennett and Johnjoe McFadden, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey, debate the ...
Canada: 14-year-old debates GE with TV personality
Rachel Parent is 14 and believes GE food should be labeled. The young activist has been making public speeches about ...
Ghana: GE promoters winning as major opponent switches to pro-GE camp
It could be described as a battle to control food security. It could even be seen as a game in ...
Kloor: Critic of pseudoscience = defender of industry?
If you follow the public debate on genetically modified foods, you know it’s become unhinged from reality. This is because ...
Natural products producers: Let the consumer market decide on GE labeling
It’s the most contentious issue for industry since the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 or the ...
