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.
AI horticulture: Optimizing climate change resistant crops of the future with the help of machine learning
In the quest for sustainable agriculture and food security, AI-driven plant breeding has been heralded as a game-changing solution. The adoption ...
Viewpoint: ‘USDA successfully brought Big Ag aboard in the fight against climate change. Now they have to prove it will work’
The strategy of paying large incentives to farmers so they adopt climate-friendly farming methods won over large swaths of big ...
Closing gap between potential and acheivable productivity: India needs to be open to genetic tinkering and other enhancement technologies
Though India has achieved food security with the production of food grains reaching 330 MT, the demand for coarse cereals, ...
Are ‘healthy’ substitutes worth the extra cost? Here’s why you shouldn’t fall for low-carb, whole-wheat, all-natural labels at the grocery store
A new survey says lots of people opt for 'healthier' substitutes like chicken instead of beef and vanilla-flavored plant juice instead ...
Kenyan scientists dismiss claims by anti-biotechnology activists that GMOs can make men grow breasts
Veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho, who spoke on behalf of the media fraternity, observed that a constant narrative blames the Kenyan ...
You can’t label it feta: Europe ignites food war with US, demanding that only cheeses produced in their origin region can use ‘historically trademarked’ names
The U.S. cheese industry in particular has chafed against the EU regulations, which protect almost 300 cheeses. To be called ...
Record heat waves wreak havoc on attempts to wipe-out disease-carrying mosquitoes
Scientists have warned that some mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria and dengue fever, may spread into new territories as the world ...
Rwanda inches towards embracing GMO crops as part of long-term modernization plan
The Rwandan Parliament approved the relevance of a draft law governing biosafety, which aims to address the potential risks associated ...
Seed espionage and intellectual copyright: Is China covertly stealing US-developed genetically-engineered seeds?
Farmers in Iowa are accusing the Chinese state of stealing valuable seed samples from America, that have been genetically modified ...
Yes, more honeybees die now than 40 years ago — but reasons why are not as clear-cut as politicians and activists claim
“Save the bees,” you will hear, at ice cream shops and farmers markets. A study touting the latest death rates ...
Kenya loses 60% of corn crop to stem borer pests annually. Insect-resistant Bt GMO corn could raise yields and cut pesticide use
Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) is a species of bacteria that produces proteins that are toxic to certain insects. Because of this, ...
Pest to protein: Indian aquaculture farmers explore economic and sustainability benefits of insect-based feed
Insects are emerging as a viable source of sustainable alternative ingredients – primarily insect protein concentrate or insect meal and ...
How to design climate-adaptive next-generation gene-edited plants while preserving biodiversity
A special issue of the journal PLOS Biology explores plant engineering as a tool to improve the climate resilience and carbon capture potential ...
Africa’s anti-GMO activists spread myths and fear but do not provide any scientific evidence
Since Genetically Modified Organisms were introduced in Africa, they have faced misconceptions and myths surrounding their safety, environmental impact, and benefits ...
Will US consumers ever get to taste gene-edited sirloin? It may depend on whether the FDA or USDA wins broiling regulatory turf war
The future of genetically modified bacon, steak and fish is at the center of a Washington food fight ...
Head of premier biotechnology research institute assures Kenyans genetically modified crops are safe, pose no danger to their health
I conducted some random research on the acceptability of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Kenya. I called some farmers I know ...
Climate change impact of food waste: ⅓ of our food is wasted contributing to half of agriculture’s carbon footprint
Around a third of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions comes from the global food system, and lost or wasted food is known ...
Viewpoint: Why much of what you’ve read about the health dangers of ultra-processed foods is wrong
The selling point of books like Ultra-Processed People is the idea that everything you know is wrong. Chris Van Tulleken, ...
Austria opposes EU plan to deregulate crop gene editing after uproar from organic farmers
The European Commission's proposal to ease current restrictions on genetically modified crops has riled up EU organic farming leader Austria ...
China challenges anti-GMO disinformation that floods the internet
A host of experts and officials have recently defended the safety of genetically modified food, as China seeks to bolster ...
AI accelerates development of pest-resistant and climate change adaptive seeds
While agricultural companies and farmers have a host of ways to tackle disease and pests, there are novel solutions on ...
Making waves in aquaculture: Norway approves plant-based omega-3 oil that replaces fish with biotech canola
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) granted approval for Aquaterra® Omega-3 oil for use in fish feed applications according to ...
Agricultural biosecurity: How can we keep food safe in a world of globally connected farms and pastures?
You’ve probably heard the word biosecurity referencing animal health, but many still ask what exactly is it? ...
Viewpoint: Pesticides in strawberries? Environmental Working Group scares people about safe produce but ignores chemicals applied by their organic mega donors
Environmental Working Group, the Extinction Rebellion of affordable produce, is always in a war on strawberries - unless they only ...
Two decades of propaganda from Kenyan activists threaten to undermine country’s embrace of sustainable agro-biotechnology
Across the country, people have formed a negative attitude towards genetically modified organisms (GMO) based on unfounded claims that have ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s proposed Green Deal is a “disaster under current climatic conditions”
Is Europe sufficiently equipped to cope in terms of food security and supply in the event of sharp rises in ...
Viewpoint: Deception and dirty politics are behind targeting of PFAS
With allied epidemiologists placed inside the US Environmental Protection Agency, and scientists pushed to the side, environmentalists feel like they ...
