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.
Challenging misconceptions: Global managed honeybee population increasing, not decreasing, finds Nature study, but not keeping up with population growth
We conducted a retrospective study to examine the long-term trends for the global honey bee population and its two main ...
Genetically modified crops are key to resisting climate change, US embassy in Pakistan says
The United States is proud of its long and fruitful agricultural trade relationship with Pakistan. This relationship has grown stronger ...
Viewpoint: Philippines’ food security crisis will continue to deepen without disruptive biotechnology innovations
A major yield breakthrough in corn has occurred due to the introduction of hybrid seed which can be further galvanised ...
Bioactive compounds from potatoes and tomatoes could help us create new cancer drugs
Vegetables such as potatoes could someday help us fight cancer, according to a study completed at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland and published ...
Viewpoint: It’s a bad idea to ‘recognize anti-science reasoning’ by imposing overly stringent regulations on Canadian gene-edited crops
If a new and novel trait is added to a genetic line, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, as a part ...
Viewpoint: Gene drives are not ‘nature conservation’. Anti-GM activists call for a moratorium on the technology
Ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15 and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in Montreal over 140 civil society organisations ...
Potato farming experts push back on restrictive EPA pesticide regulations
Interacting with EPA staff and sharing the complexities of producing a high-quality, high-cost potato crop for U.S. consumers and customers ...
Viewpoint: Has the organic trend gone stale? After 10 years of growth, organic food sales have started to fall in the UK
After 10 years of slow but steady growth, sales of organic food and drink in UK supermarkets have fallen by ...
‘Their joy knows no bounds’: Nigerian farmers welcome first harvest of disease-resistant genetically modified potatoes as a possible end to the ‘nightmare’ of late-blight potato disease
Elder Isaiah Buwah is an aged potato farmer in the Bokos Local Government Area of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria ...
Carbon-neutral farming policies will fail without a science based approach, new report warns
The development and application of agricultural technologies must become a priority for the UK government if the farming sector is ...
Junk food could interfere with cognitive function, as well as increase obesity and illnesses
Ultra-processed foods have lots of added and unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors and preservatives. Examples include ...
‘We’re at war with nature’: Can the UN biodiversity convention make real progress?
Delegates from around the world are gathering in Montreal to address what United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described ...
Targeting the food insecure: Fake news about GMOs spreads misinformation to hundreds of millions of people
To quantify the extent of misinformation about GMOs, a study was conducted by the Alliance for Science at the Boyce ...
‘Space salad’ and ‘cosmic tomatoes’: How scientists plan to limit bone density loss in astronauts during deep space voyages
Basically, the goal is to grow dwarf tomato plants (essentially cherry tomatoes) under two different light quality treatments in space, ...
COP27 signals growing focus on global food security as agricultural battle against climate change escalates
The COP27 Presidency, together with FAO, launched the Food and Agriculture for a Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Initiative to improve the quantity and ...
‘Nature is just eroding away very slowly’: Reuters visually illustrates sharp decline in global insect populations
As human activities rapidly transform the planet, the global insect population is declining at an unprecedented rate of up to ...
Viewpoint: Pollinator ecotoxicologist on how much danger current pesticides pose to honeybees
Dan Schmehl is a pollinator ecotoxicologist for Bayer, who has done some incredible work testing the effects of potential new ...
80% of US consumers are willing to try lab grown, cell-cultured meat
“Farm-to-table” has long been a sought-after designation for food—but “lab-to-table” might be the next trend for your favorite animal protein ...
Here’s how a treasure trove of plant genetics helped develop drought-tolerant wheat that farmers in arid countries are ‘falling in love with’
A new drought-tolerant variety of durum wheat has been created as part of an international breeding programme to boost climate ...
Viewpoint: Ensuring sustainable agriculture — Should organic and small farms get special federal tax breaks or subsidies?
Growing political pressures for federal subsidies and regulations to shift food-supply incentives toward favored farms and farm practices may divert ...
Philadelphia Cream Cheese launches plant-based version
Philadelphia Cream Cheese is launching a plant-based version of its original-flavored spread. This is the first time a big brand ...
Developing ‘synthetic’ food for a Mars journey could revolutionize food systems on Earth
In Dinner on Mars, Evan Fraser and co-author Lenore Newman — Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment at ...
Switch to more organic farming would lead to higher food prices, lower profits — California Farm Bureau study
A European Union policy goal to exponentially increase organic farming to 30% of all agricultural production by 2030 is expected ...
‘The supply just isn’t there’: Brazil, Argentina and US push back on Mexico’s looming GMO corn ban
The U.S. corn sector has been adamant that it cannot easily or quickly shift to producing non-GMO corn to comply ...
Finnish green party says restrictions on agricultural gene editing should be relaxed to encourage sustainable farming
The Finnish Green Party council supports the dismantling of the regulation on genetically modified organisms (GMO). The party council approved ...
Viewpoint: California governor Gavin Newsom wants to transform 30% of the state’s agriculture into organic. This study claims that would be a disaster
A new study finds that rapidly converting 30% of California agriculture to organic practices would dramatically increase food prices and ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists promote myth that farmers over-apply pesticides on US farmland
Activist groups and other organizations that go after conventional agriculture will lead you to believe that farmers are spraying the ...
