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.
Mexico’s GM corn and glyphosate ban is not just a rejection of science — it’s about a trade pact the country perceives as unfair
In late 2020, Mexico announced its intention to ban genetically modified corn, prompting the United States to threaten a challenge ...
How industrial waste from cheese-making could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels
John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, wants to turn whey into the chemicals used ...
Mustard greens genetically tweaked to be less bitter will be the first CRISPR edited food available in the US when they reach supermarkets this summer
A gene-editing startup wants to help you eat healthier salads. This month, North Carolina–based Pairwise is rolling out a new ...
A debilitating virus has plagued the cattle industry for decades. Scientists have now gene-edited a calf resistant to the disease
Bovine viral diarrhea virus can be disastrous to pregnant cows because it can infect developing calves, causing spontaneous abortions and ...
Viewpoint: Grim consequences of Greenpeace’s war on biotechnology — Blindness, hunger, and suffering children
A genetically modified rice variety could save the lives of thousands of children. But now Greenpeace has prevented the sowing because of ...
Which diet is more likely to prolong life: Low-carb or low-fat?
When it comes to diets, every kind of eating plan boasts different benefits, whether it’s weight loss, reducing inflammation, or boosting your brain ...
Gene-edited banana that limits Panama disease and protects against browning in development in Panama
Panama disease, also called Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is a serious banana disease and is one of the ...
When might CRISPR gene-edited seeds become the norm in farming?
High adoption of gene-edited crop seeds is expected in the next five to ten years, a new report by Rabobank ...
Glyphosate fact check: Micro-traces in food do not constitute a ‘dangerously high amount of weedkiller’
In an April 25 Facebook reel, a man holds a bag of Goldfish crackers and says they "contain a dangerously high ...
Viewpoint: ‘Science does not matter in Europe’ — European Chemicals Agency says weedkiller glyphosate does not cause cancer, but it will be banned nonetheless
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Committee for Risk Assessment is unsurprisingly more literate than a San Francisco jury, so they ...
3D-printed fish? Cultivated filets could preserve dwindling fish populations
Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish ...
Australia slated to approve country’s first genetically modified crop: Disease-resistant bananas
Scientists have submitted Australia’s first genetically modified fruit – a Cavendish banana – to regulators for approval, saying it has ...
Snopes fact-checks claims by ‘deep state conspiracy grifters’ that US government adds COVID vaccines into our food supply
For several years, a collection of anti-vaccine activists, snake oil salesmen, anti-GMO activists, and deep state conspiracy grifters have been raising ...
Combining the best of organic farming with limited, targeted use of pesticides – and saving consumers up to 30%
Cost-prohibitive organic food is being disrupted by an increasingly popular type of farming called integrated pest management (IPM) where natural ...
Will plant-based seafood soon be on the menu?
Pearlita has spent “months and months” experimenting with shellfish alternatives in its leased commercial kitchen at the Piedmont Food Processing ...
Is there a connection between eating ‘highly processed foods’ and poor mental health?
One recent effort getting new life thanks to a sympathetic ally in corporate journalism is a "link" between ultra-processed foods and mental ...
Removing bitterness: Why do today’s Brussels sprouts taste so much better than when we were children?
It’s not just in your imagination that the Brussels sprouts you ate in your adolescence were, uh, potent, to say ...
Here’s why Mexico’s looming GMO corn ban could disrupt US global trade
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador published a presidential decree banning genetically modified corn in Mexicans’ diets, and ending the ...
Four billion American chestnut trees have been killed by a deadly fungus. Can genetic engineering help scientists build a better tree?
Over the course of the 20th century, an estimated four billion [American chestnut trees], one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing ...
Viewpoint: ‘Fake activism’ — How Indian activists promote misleading claims to sway public opinion against crop biotechnology and other science innovations
Fake activism is a dangerous tool that is used to manipulate public opinion and to further the interests of those ...
Why do some people love salty foods? It could be because they ate a fat-rich diet as a child
We are all aware of the importance of eating healthy food, especially during pregnancy. A high-fat diet has dramatic consequences ...
Podcast: Growing jetfuel? How genetically-engineered camelina is making sustainable biofuels a reality
The future lies in our farmlands — as the fossil fuels industry fades, crops like camelina, a flowering seed oil ...
Insect-resistant Bt eggplant recently approved in the Philippines could triple farmers’ incomes
The most destructive insect pest that attacks the crop is called the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB). Scientifically, it ...
What New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) are in the pipeline to address EU’s farming sustainability challenges?
During the April 25th meeting of the Parliament’s committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Stella Kyriakides, the EU Commissioner of Health ...
3D-printed cell-based fish? Sounds bizarre, but it tastes like the real thing and could eventually help save our oceans
Israeli firm Steakholder Foods announced that they’ve used 3D printing technology to make ready-to-cook cultivated grouper. They boast the taste and ...
Viewpoint: Mexico remains divided on GMO corn ban. Here’s what one farmer wants to happen
In Mexico, we buy significant amounts of corn from growers in the United States because my country doesn’t have the ...
Viewpoint: ‘The Amazon Rainforest is not only a natural heritage, but also a biocultural heritage.’
Until the turn of the 21st century, the ruling paradigm was that the soil in the Amazon was too poor ...
