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.
Monsanto may lose GM soya royalties throughout Brazil
The biotechnology giant Monsanto is one step closer to losing billions of dollars in revenues from its genetically-modified (GM) Roundup ...
USDA completes benchmark corn genetics analysis
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues have published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn ...
Africa: New film sows Seeds of Freedom , anti-GM twist
A new film from the African Biodiversity Network (ABN) and the Gaia Foundation, narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, is set ...
Combating crop diseases
Fusarium graminearum is a notorious fungus that infects major crops, such as wheat, barley and corn, causing significant economic hardship ...
Elephant grass used for energy
An Ontario company wants to help turn elephant grass into electrons at a biomass plant proposed for Hantsport. Pro Farm ...
Controversy flares over Agent Orange
The food industry is embroiled in a controversy over what critics call "Agent Orange corn." The genetically-modified vegetable is protected ...
A ban on the use of crops with transgenic traits is unscientific, says GM supporter
Science and technology hold the key to developing low-input, high-output agriculture. The challenge is to use new technologies creatively and ...
Death of “Frankenfood”?
For more than a decade, Europe has faced fierce debate over genetically modified organisms—specifically, consumer crops that have had their ...
US sending money to North Carolina, New York farmers for energy crops
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to announce Wednesday that North Carolina and New York each will receive about $4 million ...
Hungary tightens rules limiting GMO crops
The ministry of rural development on Tuesday welcomed a law on GMO-related activities, unanimously passed, which maximises chances of the ...
GM crops good for environment, study finds
Crops genetically modified to poison pests can deliver significant environmental benefits, according to a study spanning two decades and 1.5m ...
Food and Agriculture Organization official urges Zambia to accept GM
Zambia has consistently expressed its official opposition to GM crops, but as elsewhere in Africa, the pressure to adopt them ...
Genetically modified crops shrink farming’s pesticide footprint, says GM supporter
No wonder modern apocalyptic mythology about agriculture, sinister stories about pesticides and assertions that genetic engineering of crops break a ...
How California’s GM food referendum may change what America eats
Last month, nearly 1m signatures were delivered to county registrars throughout California calling for a referendum on the labeling of ...
Use of GM to produce sterile male insects
Scientists at a British company have been able to genetically modify the Diamondback moth, one of the world’s most damaging ...
California voters to decide on GMO labeling
The California Secretary of State's office has announced that the Right to Know initiative to label genetically engineered foods will ...
Russia to allow GMOs in order to enter WTO
As Russia aims to join the World Trade Organization, it is sweetening the deal by offering to drop its restrictions ...
Germany to oppose easing of GM trace rules
Germany will oppose any European Union move to allow traces of unapproved genetically-modified (GM) organisms in food in a similar ...
Why genetically modified corn in Pakistan?
Biotechnology, an evolution of traditional agricultural methods and the fastest adopted crop technology in history, is not new to Pakistan ...
The new wave of herbicide-resistant crops
On May 23, 2012, John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America, sent a letter to President Barack Obama ...
Cross-pollination of genetically modified food
When I first came across the topic of genetically modified food, I instantly imagined oversized vegetables on a crusade to ...
India: Move on GM crops provokes massive protests
The environment ministry's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee — meant to regulate GM crop release — has been hit with a ...
Africa: Gov’t takes measures to increase cotton production
The Government of Ghana has pledge its commitment towards the increment of cotton production in the country. To this end, ...
Should we label genetically modified food?
States--including California and Vermont--are considering laws that would require that genetically modified foods be clearly labeled on the packaging. Nationwide, ...
EU plans to let traces of unapproved GMOs in food
Tiny amounts of unapproved genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will be permitted in food imports to the European Union under draft ...
Italy: GMO field to be destroyed after being authorized 14 years ago
An experimental field of GMO plants, authorized in 1998 in Italy, is going to be destroyed during the next few ...
U.S. House biotech proposal would bypass courts-critic
A provision in a U.S. House bill would allow farmers to grow genetically modified crops while court battles are under ...
