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.
China’s CRISPR gene-edited silkworms spin fibers 6 times tougher than Kevlar
Scientists in China have synthesized spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, producing fibers six times tougher than the Kevlar used ...
With sustainability and productivity challenges mounting, South African farmers warm to agro-technology
Farmers have now found ways to improve the basic farming methods with state-of-the-art agritech ...
While advocates for lab-grown protein see a solution to America’s meat addiction, many chefs give hearty ‘no’ to what they call ‘fake meat’
Lab-grown meat, heralded by proponents as the next big thing in food, has appeared on select restaurant menus around the ...
Viewpoint: In a world of dysfunctional food systems, is it realistic to hope for CRISPR gene editing to save agriculture?
Considering that farmers already lose 20-40 percent of their crop yields to pests, which costs them $200 million per year, they can’t ...
How Dolly, the first cloned sheep, sparked bioethical debate over ‘creating life’
Perhaps more than any other biotech advance, Dolly, the first cloned animal, symbolized growing human power over nature. But the ...
Viewpoint: 126 million Africans are vulnerable to malaria. Bill Gates explains why gene drive mosquitoes may be the only solution
Since establishing a beachhead in Djibouti, An. stephensi mosquitoes have been detected in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and as far away ...
Poverty, food and brain health: Lack of nutritious food leaves multi-generational impact on our bodies and minds
You are what you eat, according to the adage. But it’s not just the body that’s impacted. According to research ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech activists claim Gates Foundation-supported plan to embrace crop biotechnology and modernize African agriculture is failing
The persistence of hunger and food crises across the world has spawned some false solutions. One of the most notable ...
Viewpoint: Blame Big Tobacco for helping create junk food industry
For decades, tobacco companies hooked people on cigarettes by making their products more addictive. Now, a new study suggests that tobacco ...
Muslim and Jewish leaders debate whether lab-grown protein is Halal or Kosher
Lab-grown meat has begun getting the green light from regulators and is making its way onto restaurant menus. Still, not ...
Investigation: ‘Everything is made by hand’ — Lab grown meat startup Upside Foods presents high-tech facade, but its ‘futuristic factory’ is a lie
“We’re starting to show, from day one, what this whole industry is about,” Upside Foods cofounder and CEO Uma Valeti ...
Viewpoint: European concessions to green activists undermine their own technology-rejectionist agenda, opening door to CRISPR and other new breeding techniques
Legislation in Europe either dies a quiet death or goes out with a lot of fanfare. The “Farm to Fork” ...
Reshuffling the deck: How agro-chemical suppliers are repositioning weed-killing products
There is a new king of soybeans on the American farm—for now. ...
Why does cilantro taste like soap to some people? Tracking genes that predispose taste for bitter beer, grapefruit and kale
Between 3% and 21% of people, depending on their location in the world, dislike cilantro for its soapiness. But how can ...
How reviving ancient heat-resistant proteins could help plants survive rising temperatures
After what NASA says was the hottest three-month period ever recorded on Earth, people in the Northern Hemisphere in particular ...
‘It’s just hard to be profitable’: Indoor farming is a booming industry — so why are so many farms failing?
Eden Green Technology is one of the latest crop of indoor farming companies seeking their fortunes with green factories meant ...
As federal agencies prepare to deregulate transgenic chestnuts, Indigenous nations assert right to access and care for them
The American chestnut tree, or číhtkęr in Tuscarora, once grew across what is currently the eastern United States, from Mississippi ...
Heat waves, forest fires and new temperature records: This summer was the hottest in recorded history
Southern Europe has seen constant heat waves, forest fires and new heat records, and Tromsø in northern Norway has had ...
War and agriculture: GMO foods now legal to produce in Ukraine, Zelenskyy determines
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law regarding state control over the placement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and ...
Measuring the addictive potential of ‘ultra-processed foods’
Given the option, most rats will choose sugar instead of cocaine. Their lust for the carbohydrate is so intense that they ...
Despite shouldering some of the blame for climate change, could agricultural technology actually cut emissions?
As the Earth’s human population grows, greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s food system are on track to expand ...
Gene editing legislation on horizon may signal new dawn for EU’s sustainability and food security potential
On July 5, 2023, the European Commission presented a bill aimed at the partial deregulation of plant varieties resulting from ...
Viewpoint: Why we should be skeptical of ‘climate-friendly’ grocery store claims
Meat eaters are about to have a new option in the beef aisle. Along with cuts of meat labeled as ...
Nocturnal farming: How climate change might force farmers to rethink their early-to-rise schedule
Rising temperatures in key agricultural regions across the United States are leading more farmers to harvest in the middle of ...
‘Industrial’ seed oils are killing you? Here’s the health story behind cooking oils
There’s a new bogeyman in the nutrition world: vegetable oil, especially so-called “industrial seed oils” like canola, corn, and soybean ...
Viewpoint: ‘Activists are tireless’ — 30 years of global genetically modified crop use has proven they are safe and sustainable, but GMOs remain under assault
Literally trillions of animals have been fed with GMO feed without any detectable negative health effect ...
Can lab-grown fruit reduce hunger and methane-generating waste?
Scientists in New Zealand are attempting to create lab-grown fruit from plant cells, without the parts that are usually thrown ...
