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.
Who benefits from cell-grown meat? Livestock advocate questions wisdom of Biden’s pro-biotech executive order
While grants and funding continue to be announced for small packing plants and legislation to support small producers is a priority to some congressmen, ...
‘Power-hungry meglomaniac’ promoting ‘philanthrocapitalism’: In fundraising pitches, anti-GMO activist groups blast Bill Gates’ renewed commitment to promoting biotechnology to address food shortages and climate change
By spending billions on agriculture projects in African countries, Gates is attempting to launch another Green Revolution — one that prioritizes industrial methods like ...
Energy costs might be only real barrier to replacing farm animals and producing nutritious meals in a lab
The industrial biotech startup is working on bringing a novel protein to market — one it says will offer a ...
Analysis: ‘We can sequence an animal’s entire genome’ — How advanced biotechnology could dramatically improve meat production
The production of meat, the main protein consumed in the world, needs to grow as consumption increases. To this end, genetic ...
German National Academy of Sciences challenges myths about dangers of agricultural biotechnology
Genetically modified plants may not be cultivated on German fields. Research into them has so far been strictly regulated throughout the ...
‘Fails to protect consumers’: Federal judge rules Trump-designed, Biden-backed GMO labeling needs to include more than just computer codes and text messages; USDA appeal likely
The government’s rules for labeling GMO foods, those produced with genetic engineering, fail to protect consumers adequately because they allow ...
CRISPR is 10: A decade of gene editing refinements presents new ways to address agricultural diseases thought to be incurable
Because CRISPR applications promise so many benefits, we are impatient to see them realized. Indeed, we may complain that the ...
NY Times’ Tom Friedman: US and its Western allies need to stop living in a green fantasy world that says we can go from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy by ‘just flipping a switch’
Putin thinks he’s found a cold war that he can win. He’s going to try to literally freeze the European ...
Viewpoint: Here’s how post-truth tactics became central to the anti-biotechnology playbook
Most of us are familiar with the propaganda aimed at glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. For years, activists pushed ...
How a new regulatory structure for biotechnology-tweaked crops might work — and why it’s desperately needed
Current approaches for triggering safety testing of genetically engineered (GE) crops vary substantially among countries and generally lack scientific merit, ...
What could go wrong? Analyzing the merits and consequences of gene drives
ISAAA Inc., in partnership with the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research, launched a policy brief that tackles the importance ...
What are the barriers to engineering perennial, high-yield grain crops?
Perennial grain crops –those you only plant once before harvesting multiple times – would potentially deliver many favourable on-farm attributes ...
Non-GMO food label sees jump in popularity, especially in states that considered genetic modification labeling laws
Non-GMO Project Verified items saw much steeper growth rates than other products between 2019 and 2021, according to a report ...
CRISPR tackles deadly cassava mosaic virus disease
Work has begun to possibly develop CRISPR cassava varieties that are resistant to the deadly cassava mosaic disease (CMD), after an international team ...
Study addresses coverage of BPA and GMOs: How ideological interests skew interpretation of contested science
When controversies develop around scientific facts or technologies, the potential of science to become a tool in plays of interests ...
Viewpoint: Canada’s embrace of relaxed crop gene editing guidelines opens doors to innovation
Following lengthy public consultations and data review, Health Canada concluded crops developed through gene editing are safe and, in most ...
Viewpoint: No BuzzFeed, local food is not necessarily (or likely) more carbon-friendly
BuzzFeed News manages to make two mistakes here about food and the environment. One is the idea that if we ...
Sri Lanka poised to lift glyphosate ban that contributed to country’s food production crisis
The Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Mahinda Amaraweera said the Ministry of Agriculture is ready ...
Study: History of CRISPR gene editing in food
The development of a method for genome editing based on CRISPR–Cas9 technology was awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in ...
Why are seedless watermelons ‘genetically modified’ but not considered GMOs?
Before, there were two types of people: those who spit out the seeds of the watermelon and those who removed ...
Study: $261 billion — That’s how much GMO crops have boosted farmers’ incomes
This paper updates previous estimates for the global value of using genetically modified (GM) crop technology in agriculture at the ...
Global food consumption is rising, along with the need for carbon-emitting nitrogen fertilizer. Here’s what scientists are doing to address this fast-approaching crisis
Growing and producing food, fiber, and biofuels generates about one-quarter of all human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions. At the same time, yields ...
Podcast: Is there a future in the US for gene editing in animals? Kevin Folta talks with Alison van Eenennaam about her latest breakthrough research and regulatory hurdles she faces
Amazing innovations in animal gene editing have the promise to streamline agriculture, with benefits for agricultural producers, consumers and the ...
Synthetic biology: Potential game changer for climate change adaptation in Africa
While the rapid expansion of synthetic biology has to date mainly focused on the microbial sciences and human health, it ...
Study: How gene-edited crops are regulated around the world
To date, many countries have made decisions on the regulatory status of products of genome editing, by exempting some kinds ...
‘GMOs are just a new twist on what humans have been doing for centuries,’ says Hawaii based tropical agriculture scientist
The question is, are genetically modified organisms good or bad? The answer is that it all depends on how the ...
Viewpoint: Activists and radical ecologists publicize myth that ‘agrochemical lobbyists control global agriculture’
In the age of fake news and conspiracy theories, some find it seductive to assert that evil agrochemical lobbies would ...
