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.
GM seeds likely to be in the hands of Ghanaian farmers by next year, scientists say
Ghanaian scientists say genetically modified seeds will most likely be in the hands of farmers by the start of the ...
Monsanto and BASF held liable for farmers who misused older formulations of dicamba, resulting in drift and extensive crop damage
The difference between farmers and meth cooks who misuse legal products has proven crucial in a court ruling with far-reaching ...
Maci Mueller: Pioneering revolutionary changes in livestock breeding through gene editing
Scientific innovator Maci Mueller is using gene editing to revolutionize the way that ranchers and dairy farmers perpetuate their herds ...
‘Solving Africa’s food challenges’: Will anti-GMO activists and other market obstacles block adoption?
“We're living on borrowed time,” says Wijnand Swart, a plant pathologist at the University of Free State (UFS) in South ...
Nigeria endorses safety of GMO foods
The Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, has restated that all approved Genetically Modified ...
Evolution of lactose tolerance: How humans (recently) became able to digest milk, cheese and other dairy products
In a study published [July 27] in Nature, researchers compared archaeological evidence for 9,000 years of European milk use with genetics, and found ...
US security report: China’s efforts to acheive food security seen as threat to steal crop biotechnology innovations and weaponize gene-editing tools
China’s efforts to achieve food security represent a threat to the US, according to an American federal agency focused on ...
‘Using insect biology against themselves’: New type of pesticide uses caterpillar pheromones to stop pests from mating
Scientists from the University of Missouri are on the edge of a new frontier in pest control: They are filling ...
Podcast: How gene editing can prevent devastating consequences from sharply rising temperatures
Propelled by climate change, future heat waves promise to increase in frequency and intensity, posing a dangerous threat to human ...
Study: How GMOs and crop gene editing can increase genetic diversity and help contain climate change
In this essay, we explore the potential of crop biotechnology to contribute to this diversification, especially in industrialized systems, by ...
Genetically-engineered disease-resistant potato eagerly awaited by farmers in Rwanda
Potato farmers have welcomed the government’s ongoing trials on the use of agricultural biotechnology in producing a new Irish potato ...
India debates new ways to make biofuels as sustainability threats rise
For many countries such as India, domestic biofuel production can reduce the consumption of imported fossil fuels, which provides economic gains, in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Mass tort litigation is a big business’ — How litigation mills are targeting agricultural chemicals
If you were watching television in almost any U.S. market in March and April, you probably saw advertisements soliciting would-be ...
Once insulated from bee health crisis, Australia invaded by honeybee-killing Varroa mites. How have other countries adapted?
Just three short weeks ago the bee parasite Varroa destructor was detected in Newcastle, NSW. Beekeepers and government bodies have sprung into ...
Next up on the lab-grown meat menu? Wild animals like wildebeest, springbok and impala
The global push to develop lab-grown meat is taking an exotic twist in South Africa, where slaughter-free cuts of springbok, wildebeest ...
Rice with longer roots, faster growth and up to 40% higher yields with just a gene editing tweak
By giving a Chinese rice variety a second copy of one of its own genes, researchers have boosted its yield ...
A yield-boosting wheat gene could help address growing climate and food insecurity crises
Wheat, one of the most important food rations, is an inbred crop with low genetic diversity and unique evolutionary constraints ...
The newest superfood: Environmentally-friendly seaweed may be a ‘one stop shop for our crucial nutrient needs’
Seaweed helps to support other marine life and to clean the water surrounding it. When out of the water, it ...
CRISPR seafood: Japanese restaurants now offer gene-edited pufferfish and seabream following 2021 approval
In 2021, Japan’s government approved three gene-edited foods for commercial sale: a tomato with increased GABA content and two fish ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s Green Deal Farm to Fork strategy brings innovation possibilities — but economic trade-offs are costly
The European Green Deal is the name of the EU’s overarching policy that aims to make the EU climate neutral ...
Viewpoint: Onerous dual-agency regulations could dramatically slow adoption of cell-based meats and seafood
Plant-based protein and “meat-alternative” products have streamed into the marketplace in recent years. The trend has been driven in part ...
Video: Reason TV examines California ruling that re-classifies bees as fish as a means to ‘protect’ them
For the past few years, government officials and agricultural groups in California have been fighting over the question: Are bees ...
Farmer’s perspective: In defense of judicious use of agricultural pesticides
I’m no stranger to the controversy that surrounds pesticide use. However, I’d love a chance to explain the benefits I ...
Sri Lanka’s pro organic/no pesticide policy fiasco brings woes to country’s once-flourishing tea industry
With Sri Lanka in the throes of its worst ever economic crisis, its prosperous tea industry has taken a hit, ...
Synthetic biology is more than just cruelty-free meat. Here’s how it could address biodiversity concerns and pollution
Advances in synthetic biology will be just a part of the solution to some of the most severe threats to ...
Viewpoint: ‘20-years late’ — Why we need to confront agricultural biotechnology innovation regulatory roadblocks
A recent study contracted by CropLife International found that the current time for a new GM trait to go from R&D to ...
Viewpoint — Agriculture without labels: It’s time to end the false dichotomy between organic and conventional farming
The debate on methods and techniques of agricultural production is usually fought between two extremes: large-scale agriculture, made in a ...
