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.
Snake oil? Are biologicals used by farmers to treat diseases, fend off pests and enhance soil health effective?
The aim of the European Seed series on Myths, Fake News, Misinformation and Disinformation is to dive deeper, taking a closer ...
Plastics make agriculture possible — but are microplastics harming soil?
Frequent extreme weather and growing food demand have exacerbated reliance on plastics to increase grain yield. Plastics used in agriculture ...
Viewpoint: ‘Our planet is at a breaking point’ — Is it time to foster innovations like precision fermentation and cultivated meat to realign food systems with climate reality?
Many of us have enjoyed a boom of eating what we want, when we want it, and are only now ...
Do conventional crops reduce biodiversity as advocacy groups claim? Is modern plant breeding necessary? Examining populist views on modern agriculture
The aim of the European Seed series on Myths, Fake News, Misinformation and Disinformation is to dive deeper, taking a closer ...
How the sausage gets made: A look inside the arduous and expensive process of pesticide regulatory approval
To get a new active ingredient product approved, there are a significant number of studies a company must complete first ...
Grains, coffee and citrus are among foods threatened by rising temperatures. Some species may go completely extinct without new solutions
There are some ways in which we can definitely expect climate change to alter what we eat. Here are some ...
Viewpoint: ‘Every approved biotech crop has benefited the environment’ — Why streamlining regulations are key to sustainability and food security goals
Today, there is much discussion about how agriculture contributes to climate change. Most agree that we should continue improving food ...
Viewpoint: Buzz words like ‘eco-friendly’, ‘net-zero’ and ‘regenerative agriculture’ represent a new wave of greenwashing
Dairy company Arla has been banned from using the claim ‘net-zero climate footprint’ when marketing some of its products ...
Is chocolate good for you? Claims that dark chocolate can lower heart disease risk need second look, FDA says
U.S. Food and Drug Administration has weighed in on whether chocolate is good for the heart. The answer, it turns ...
Viewpoint: ‘We need more agricultural land than is available’ — Here’s why organic agriculture cannot address biodiversity and sustainability
For Germany and the EU, boosting organic farming is a political priority and both have set targets for 2030: The ...
Give farmers a chance: Pro-GMO activists march through Nairobi and Kampala calling for the adoption of improved seeds
Pro-GMO activists marched through Nairobi in Kenya and Kampala in Uganda on February 10 and 15, 2023, calling for the ...
Viewpoint: Do US regulatory bodies pose a national threat to safe and productive agriculture?
The Biden administration has released an updated security memorandum, which outlines the threats to the American agricultural system, as well ...
Lab meat regulations: Comparing Israel to Europe — What works best?
Israel is a hotbed of cultivated meat activity, with three of the first eight cultivated meat companies in the world ...
Changes to Farm to Fork? Will Europe open the door to ‘sustainable intensification’ in the wake of dire COP27 climate change findings?
The aim to promote inclusive forms of sustainable intensification through public-private partnerships may eventually clash with the popular view in ...
India’s potential approval of GM mustard may open door to insect-resistant cotton, anti-fungal potato and vitamin-boosted banana
While controversy has dogged the environmental release of genetically engineered (GE) mustard, other GE crops are being prepped at institutes ...
Grains make up 70% of global cropland. Here’s how perennial grains, legumes, and oilseeds could dramatically improve sustainable farming
When left undisturbed, naturally-occurring vegetation tends to grow back year after year. In agriculture, this is also true of perennial crops ...
Fresh produce on Mars? Space-adapted genes help plants survive cosmic rays and low gravity
According to NASA, five major hazards appear during long spaceflights: space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, low gravity, ...
French Academy of Agriculture’s Catherine Regnault-Roger challenges misinformation about crop genetics in her sweeping new book
Let's be frank: Rare are the scientists who have a sense of communication. Catherine Regnault Roger is part of this ...
Gene editing poised to rescue banana production from plant disease sweeping through Central America
There are more than a thousand types of bananas in the world. But one variety, the Cavendish, is ubiquitous in ...
Agricultural drones poised to make affordable aerial weed-fighting crop protection available to small farmers
As farmers wrestle with increased weed resistance to herbicides, new management techniques offer modernized ways to combat weeds. Rapid improvements ...
Viewpoint: Farms and judicious pesticide use pose no mortal threat to endangered butterfly, Monarch Conservation Consortium concludes
Here’s the situation. The North American monarch butterfly travels every summer to the northern United States where it breeds. Its ...
11 tons of GMO corn seeds targeted for release in Kenya and Tanzania stalled in court
Four court cases have blocked the release of 11 tonnes of genetically modified maize seeds that were to be made ...
$10,500 for a bottle of perfume made with 8,000 flowers? Synthetic biology makes royal fragrances available at a fraction of that price
Perfume has historically been the indulgence of the rich. Many of the ingredients used by the nobility to scent the ...
TikTok chicken conspiracy: No, RNA technology has not been added to animal feed or eggs
"Let's talk about eggs and why there's a massive shortage and a massive increase in pricing. The RNA technology, you ...
Gene-edited wheat ‘significantly lowers levels of cancer-linked acrylamide which forms when bread is baked or toasted’
A strain of gene-edited wheat that could be sold in Britain under a new law has been shown to lower ...
Viewpoint: How militant environmentalists deceived the public into believing glyphosate is cancerous
Marketed in 1974 under the brand name Roundup, glyphosate has been praised for several decades for its unique herbicidal qualities ...
China’s cloned super-cows can produce 100 tons of milk per cow — 30% more than U.S dairy cattle
Chinese scientists have cloned three "super cows" able to produce 18 metric tons of milk per year and more than ...
