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.
Adapting plants to our needs: From rudimentary hand pollination by ancient farmers to CRISPR, humans have always been genetically modifying crops
People have been taking plants from the wild and growing/cultivating them to both meet their needs and their pleasures for ...
Genetically-modified houseplant that can scrub the air? This startup may have a biological way to address pollution
It looks like an ordinary pothos, a common houseplant that you might already own. But a new plant called the ...
‘Agrivoltaics’: Crossover of farming and solar power could advance food security and synergize climate goals with farmer needs
So, for the uninitiated, what is agrivoltaics? The term refers to the simultaneous use of areas of land for both ...
Viewpoint: ‘Activists and organizations spread lies about GMOs’ — Nobel laureate chides dogmatic political discourse, highlights decades of GMO’s safe use
Misinformation about science, especially genetically modified crops, need to be dispelled and they should be adopted as it is backed ...
Distant tomato relative the groundcherry: Genetic modification poised to rescue key orphan crop
Over 34 million people in the U.S. don’t have enough food. More diverse and adaptable crops are needed to address challenges in ...
Viewpoint: Satellites, artificial intelligence and smart machines key to addressing agriculture’s sustainability and social challenges of the future
Migel Tissera, Co-Founder and CTO of Metaspectral, says that technology has a significant role in improving agriculture sustainability ...
The case for GMOs in Africa
Biotechnological studies on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) offer various options for solving the continent's hunger, malnutrition, and food security challenges ...
More than 3,000 plants — including some organic crops — developed by mutating seeds using radiation or chemicals. Here’s an explainer
Plant mutation breeding, also called variation breeding, is a method that uses physical radiation or chemical means to induce spontaneous genetic variation in plants ...
‘Hybrid meat’: Will consumers embrace food made of both cultivated meat and plant-based protein?
In much the same way that hybrid vehicles acted as a bridge between the electric vehicle experimentation of the 1970s ...
Bayer reaches confidential settlement with plaintiff alleging Monsanto’s QuikPRO weedkiller caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Officials of Monsanto and their attorneys decided to pay off a St. Louis plaintiff, a professional landscaper who sued them ...
Video: UNESCO examines the environmental and biodiversity impacts of gene-edited plants and animals
Genome editing is a powerful tool. It allows us to modify genes not only to treat human diseases but also ...
Gene-edited GABA-enhanced tomatoes begin shipping in Japan
This month marks the start of shipments of tomatoes that control high blood pressure, the first gene-edited food to be ...
Why sustainably-produced lab-grown meat might be a pipe dream
The first lab-grown burger cost around $330,000 to make in 2013. Prices have dropped since then, but not to the ...
Viewpoint: If the Mexican government bans genetically modified corn, the country’s poorest and America’s farmers will suffer the most
Since 2008, U.S. corn exports to Mexico have been free of tariffs and quota restrictions thanks to hard-fought provisions in ...
Poultry meat and eggs are the most common sources of Salmonella infections. Here’s how CRISPR could address the problem and keep you from getting sick
The poultry industry is under intense scrutiny right now when it comes to Salmonella control, but a new next generation sequencing technique ...
Viewpoint: The world’s farmers are starting a ‘pro-GMO rebellion,’ challenging ‘dubious’ and ‘contradictory’ regulatory regime
Farmers across the world are desperate to grow genetically modified crops (GM) in their fields. So much so that in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Cattle laundering’ — Is the beef industry deforesting the Amazon?
On paper, the Brazilian Amazon is one of the most protected ecosystems on the planet. There are thousands of protected areas, in ...
86% positive: Cultivated meat gains support from top American chefs
A survey from food-tech company SuperMeat found that 86% of American chefs are interested in serving cultivated meat. Concerns for the ...
Viewpoint: ‘25 years of proof that GM foods are safe for the environment and humans’ – Nobel Prize winning geneticist makes case for embracing gene editing
Genetically modified plants are not cultivated in Europe, the regulatory requirements are too strict and the reservations of the population ...
Viewpoint: Ukrainian farmers ‘increasingly bleak’ in face of Russian shelling and dropping temperatures
Ukrainian farmers are doing their best to keep farming and producing food in their war-torn country, but the outlook is ...
Viewpoint: Why Columbia University has disaffiliated itself from ‘pseudoscience quack’ Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz
Throughout the election cycle, Columbia has stayed silent on Oz, whose campaign office did not respond to requests for comment ...
Shrink shrimp’s carbon footprint by half? Here’s how AI-led land-based seafood farms can sustainably meet our protein needs
Inside a humid warehouse in suburban Indianapolis, a company called Atarraya is using large metal containers and the latest technology ...
Cruelty-free foie gras? Europe’s largest foray into luxury lab-grown foods
French cultivated meat startup Gourmey has raised €48 million in what is thought to be the largest fundraising round of ...
Viewpoint: Should Europe stop using pesticides? This binary, all-or-nothing thinking misrepresents the benefits of crop protection chemicals
Long confined to the agricultural environment, crop protection issues now have a societal dimension with legitimate questions about the potential ...
Would you pay $300 for a 3D-printed steak? One day you may be able to print your own meat for a fraction of the cost
Would you eat lab-grown steak? A recent study from the Good Food Institute — a nonprofit thinktank — indicates that about 40% ...
‘Splatometer’: Here’s how scientists are trying to understand the environmental implications of the sharp drop of dead bugs on windshields
Experts say the lack of insect innards on our summer windshields is just one symptom of a broader decline in ...
‘Fuel of the future’: South Africa factory uses renewable energy to create ‘green’ ammonia
Ammonia is also used to manufacture explosives for the mining industry and is a key ingredient in many pharmaceutical and ...
