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.
Viewpoint: ‘No magic wand will answer the grim tidings of climate change’’ — Asian farming experts urge wider adoption of technology in agriculture
The father of India’s green revolution, M.S. Swaminathan, once famously said: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance ...
Faster growth, higher yields, heat and drought resistance — Is there anything gene-edited seeds can’t do?
Israeli agtech start-up BetterSeeds distinguishes itself by its focus on a burning issue of the day that affects all crops ...
Viewpoint: Here are 10 misconceptions about reforestation benefits. There’s a better alternative
Public dialogue has emphasized potential benefits of tree planting while downplaying pitfalls and limitations that are well established by social ...
Still-unapproved CRISPR gene-drive could suppress fruit-killing vinegar flies
Researchers have developed a "homing gene drive system" based on CRISPR/Cas9 that could be used to suppress populations of Drosophila ...
Viewpoint: Protectionist food trade policies — ‘EU’s obsessively unilateral embrace of organic farming is intransigent, impractical, and inconsiderate of other nations’
As the World Trade Organization is meeting in Geneva... Biden administration officials have taken aim at Europe’s protectionist trade policies ...
Viewpoint: Genetically-modified mustard is key for India to reduce expensive imports of oilseed, a ‘prime guzzler of foreign currency’
India’s dependence on edible oil imports to meet its growing domestic demand has been cause of concern over the years ...
Climate-induced ketchup shortage? How AI and other advanced technologies are helping farmers navigate global warming
Three summers’ worth of unprecedented high heat in the world’s key tomato-producing regions—Australia, Spain, and California’s central valley—have led to ...
Disinformation works: Anti-biotechnology activists in Kenya succeed in undermining food security
In October last year, the East African nation lifted a decade-long ban on the cultivation and importation of GM crops, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Elites are reprogramming us to tolerate poverty’ — Green ‘degrowthers’ lobby against carbon-free nuclear power and high-production farming
Political elites throughout the developed world are embracing the ideology of ‘degrowth’. They now seem to believe that shrinking our ...
Will AI-optimized solar farms finally open door to more ‘clean’ energy — or are companies just angling for the next government green subsidy?
With the rise of ChatGPT and other artificial-intelligence chatbots, AI is everywhere, from your doctors office to your brokerage account. It’s also poised ...
‘More risky to maintain a strict regulation than to soften it’: Genetic commission in Norway challenges EU, urges gene editing regulations similar to conventional foods
A report from the public committee advising the Norwegian Government on the future regulation of genetic technologies in food was ...
How soon will gene-edited seeds become the agricultural norm?
Rabobank sees that expectations for gene edited crops are high, and significant growth in their adoption is projected in the ...
Allergic to eggs? Here’s how tweaking chicken genes can save kids from anaphylactic shock
Egg allergies are common and may develop during early childhood, resulting in unpleasant symptoms and leading to negative health outcomes ...
Viewpoint: Do you really want a sustainable food system revolution? Let’s expand the definition of regenerative ag to include all the tools in the farmer’s toolbox
Climate change and land and nature lost to settlement and agriculture were not important topics then. When students of today ...
How the America Grows Act will improve agricultural innovation and spur research on climate change crop innovation
Agricultural research is key to ensuring food security, economic stability, and sustainable development. It is the driving force behind advances ...
Viewpoint: CRISPR crop regulations should be based on the final product, not on the nearly undetectable process of producing new plants
The adoption of new technologies by plant breeders and developers depends on clear, predictable, risk-proportionate regulation and the breadth of ...
Countries around the world diverge on how to regulate gene editing crop revolution
Existing biotech regulations for GMOs have established a very complicated and burdensome regulatory environment in addition to trade barriers without ...
Viewpoint: How the EPA deprives farmers of safe and effective pesticides by capitulating to environmental activist agendas
During his long-overdue testimony before the House Committee on Agriculture in April, EPA Administrator Michael Regan complained about anti-pesticide groups tying up ...
Viewpoint: Cultured meat mixed with plant-based protein might be good for the environment but it still can’t match the taste of a quality regular hamburger
I stared down the lineup of sliders, each on a separate bamboo plate. On the far left was a plant-based ...
As Kenyan High Court mulls future of GM imports, neighboring Ethiopia moves closer to approving genetically engineered maize, wheat, potato and enset
The Kenyan government's move to import Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for human consumption has faced a setback as the appellate ...
Cultured meat’s hidden carbon footprint raises questions about whether it’s a sustainable substitute for retail beef
Lab-grown meat, which is cultured from animal cells, is often thought to be more environmentally friendly than beef because it’s ...
‘Bureaucratic layers of red tape’: EPA’s new safety testing requirement contradicts USDA ruling that CRISPR crops are identical to those in nature
When the CRISPR gene editor landed in U.S. plant science labs a decade ago, allowing researchers to tweak a crop’s ...
Viewpoint: Gene editing and climate change — Aquaculture’s vulnerability to high temperatures, parasites and contagion could be solved with biotech
Aquaculture is a diverse sector with about 600 cultured species, as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United ...
Viewpoint: How agricultural biotechnology can help North American farmers cope with climate change
The use of modern seed genetics, which includes genetically modified crops, chemical and fertilizer use, greatly contributes to improved agricultural ...
Kenyan High Court rejects appeal to suspend genetically modified crop import ban
The government recently suffered a setback when the Court of Appeal declined to overturn orders of the High Court suspending ...
Using ‘failed’ antibiotics as herbicides makes weed killing more sustainable
A molecule which was initially developed to treat tuberculosis but failed to progress out of the lab as an antibiotic ...
‘Italy cannot afford to fall behind’: Greenlighting of CRISPR-edited plant field trials opens door to host of improved crops
The Senate Agriculture Commission approved the amendment that will allow field trials in Italy of Assisted Evolution Technologies (TEA) for ...
