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.
Benefits of increasing yields in the Amazon rainforest: Nature Sustainability study concludes ‘agricultural intensification’ could cut Brazil’s climate warming by 58%
The Amazon basin includes 550 Mha covered with rainforests, and 60% of this area is in Brazil. The conversion of rainforest ...
Viewpoint: IARC has labeled cell phones, night shifts and coffee as likely carcinogens — but we’re not doomed. Here’s why we don’t need to panic
Over the years IARC has labeled red meat, pickled foods and salted fish, carpentry, working at night, using cell phones, ...
Viewpoint: EPA’s crackdown on safe-as-used atrazine weedkiller in midst of global food crisis will send grocery store prices even higher
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency's comment period closed on its proposal to impose new restrictions on an important product for ...
Viewpoint: ‘Organic-only policies are the new face of European colonialism’ — Here’s how crop biotechnology innovation is opening doors to Africa’s self sufficiency
Former colonies of Europe were banned from sale unless they obeyed Europe when it came to food. Yet Africa has ...
Orange-colored bananas? New variety packed with 10x the vitamin A developed in Uganda provides essential nutrients for children and pregnant women – if approved
Research has shown promising results, with the transgenic banana variety having 100 percent vitamin A content. The fortified variety has ...
Viewpoint: The failure of this not-very-credible ‘expert’ witness helps explain why glyphosate-cancer litigators are on a 5-trial losing streak
All 10 jurors in a St. Louis courtroom sided with Monsanto after a month of testimony that opened with plaintiffs brought ...
Viewpoint: Why Mexico’s ban on GM corn threatens job security and will spark outflux of immigrants
Mexico may soon join a growing list of countries that ban the importation of genetically modified (GM) corn, potentially affecting ...
Biopesticides and robotics emerge as lower-impact alternatives to synthetic pesticides
Replacement of the old generation of pesticides with a new suite of technology-based and ecological-based solutions to managing pests is ...
Kenya approves GMOs after 10-year ban
Kenya has approved genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and broken free from a decade-long ban on the technology, a move that ...
Viewpoint: Can we trust corporate ‘regenerative farming’ pledges?
People latch onto words and then casually throw them around like they know what it means. The most common — ...
Does it matter when you eat dinner? Earlier in the day — and within a 10 hour window — may help boost metabolism and fight obesity
A reason to eat earlier in the day? Participants who ate meals four hours later in the day were more ...
Podcast: The story behind the vitamin-boosting purple tomato and its benefits to animal and human health
Anthocyanins are a class of plant pigments associated with healthful qualities in food. While research continues to assess their true ...
Banana flavored beer? Gene edited yeast expands beer taste possibilities
Beer may have lost some of its past flavor. Beer had historically been brewed in open, horizontal vats, but the ...
Challenging ‘green’ wisdom: Why Africa desperately needs more, not less, access to synthetic fertilizers
The European Commission has opposed a plan to support expanding fertilizer production in Africa because it would clash with the European Union’s ...
Slaughterless meat on cusp of reality? Cell-based steak, chicken and fish are all on the near horizon
Companies creating lab-grown steak, chicken, and fish see a recent White House announcement as a signal that meat grown without ...
University scientist challenges UN’s IARC to embrace current science by evaluating chemicals using ‘risk’ not just ‘hazard’ standards
The latest International Association for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph Program report on cancer hazards associated with firefighting work, which ...
Fact check: Associated Press debunks social media claims that GMO corn can cause cancer
Social media users in recent days have falsely claimed genetically modified corn isn’t safe because it’s been found to cause ...
Can ‘grow-anywhere’ micro-algae provide the nutrients and calories needed to sustainably feed our expanding species?
Most people are familiar with the largest form of algae, kelp or seaweed. It can grow up to three metres ...
Promise and peril of Kernza: This deep-rooted, erosion-fighting perennial beer grain grows back every year — but brewers struggle with transition from traditional wheat
Barley and wheat are also vulnerable to erratic weather patterns. Already, harvests of these staple grains have been disrupted across ...
Viewpoint: How to build a plant-based food system? Legislate, deregulate and flood the supermarket with vegan products
Imagine a world where plants, not animals, are the foundation of a resilient, sustainable food system that benefits not only ...
‘Human Genome Project for our diets’: Here’s how bioactive compounds could overcome a dearth of vegetables in Americans’ health
A recent paper published in Nature Food to inform the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health proposes a public challenge ...
Genes from honeybees and African frogs help create a new species of genetically modified mosquitoes that neutralize malaria at the source
Scientists have genetically modified the main malaria-carrying species of mosquito in sub-Saharan Africa to slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites ...
Fighting herbicide-resistant weeds: Statin molecule found in fungi (and common cholesterol medication) could be ‘as effective as glyphosate’
Farmers are battling increasing weed resistance to common broad-spectrum herbicides such as glyphosate, but Australian research could be a game ...
Winning streak: After losing first 3 glyphosate-cancer cases, here’s how Bayer has convinced juries in 5 recent cases that the weedkiller is not harmful to humans
Bayer is on a winning streak as it battles the remaining cases targeting its Roundup weedkiller, a change after several ...
Study: ‘Avoiding regulatory bottlenecks’ — Here’s how countries around the world are advancing climate-friendly gene editing in farming
We looked at how countries selected from a sample of geographical regions globally are currently handling applications involving GEd organisms ...
Future fruit: Meet the farmers painstakingly developing colorful and tastier new apple varieties
Imagine reaching up to a tree branch and plucking an apple that’s unusually tall and narrow — a variety called ...
With soaring costs and rising inflation, 50% of small US farmers plan to use new technologies like robotics to boost crop yields
With US inflation worsening, the research found that 80 percent of farmers now cite rising input costs as the biggest ...
