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.
Gene editing crops: Pros and cons
There are few food-related areas of discussion more emotive than that of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Public debate often takes ...
Organic fresh strawberries potentially linked to hepatitis outbreak in US and Canada
The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating a potential link between a hepatitis A outbreak and fresh organic strawberries. The FDA ...
Djibouti and Oxitec announce pilot project using genetic modification to help remove invasive malaria-transmitting mosquitoes threatening the Horn of Africa
Oxitec Ltd, the leading developer of biological pest control solutions, [May 31] announced the launch of a new partnership with ...
Video: Viewpoint — Why GMOs are good for us
Activists have convinced Americans that "organic" food is better—healthier, better-tasting, life-extending. As a result, poor parents feel guilty if they ...
Vitamin-A enhanced Golden Rice saga illustrates destructive legacy of anti-GMO hysteria
Even though 5.2 million children suffer with vision impairment and a potential death sentence, Golden Rice, a contributory answer to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bolivia cannot continue imposing straitjackets on itself by embracing retrograde ideological visions’ — Renewed plea to embrace GMO technology
[Bolivia] suffers from a shortage of corn, a grain of fundamental importance in the production chain that guarantees national food ...
Here’s why the invasion of Ukraine could prompt Europe to reform GMO food barriers and embrace gene edited crops
The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, and especially the blockade of the port cities of Odessa and Mariupol, mainstays of ...
Viewpoint: ‘A very curious form of self-sabotage’ — Organic industry rejects crop biotechnology solutions for environmental damage caused by widespread copper sulfate use
Last February, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) published a “mapping” on the uses ...
Edible metamaterials: The world’s most ‘perfect chocolate’ was 3-D printed
Think about biting into a piece of chocolate. What makes it enjoyable? Is it the sweetness? The way it melts ...
Crop gene editing and ‘sustainable intensification’ critical if Africa hopes to address climate change dislocations
Sustainable intensification of agriculture in Africa is essential for accomplishing food and nutritional security and addressing the rising concerns of ...
Farm groups claim US Solicitor General’s Supreme Court brief on glyphosate labeling puts it on the wrong side of science — and invites regulatory chaos
In a letter to President Biden, 54 agricultural groups expressed grave concern with a recent amicus brief submitted by the ...
Viewpoint: ‘Africa needs to network and share crop biotechnology advances’
In this interview with Nkechi Isaac, the chairman of Ghana’s Parliamentary Select Committee on Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and ...
Did Russia’s destruction of Ukrainian plant genetic resource center also demolish the country’s National Seed Bank?
Earlier this year, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and while Vladimir Putin's forces have largely retreated from the north ...
Viewpoint: Guardian activist journalist George Monbiot promotes book with claims that plant-based diet and regenerative farming could feed Britain 3 times over
We currently use 17.5m hectares of farmland in the UK. [Dairy farmer Simon] Fairlie finds that while a diet containing a ...
Cloud of disinformation: Ghanian scientist challenges anti-GMO scare campaigns in Africa
Africa has a more urgent need than the rest of the world to adopt genetically modified organisms for agricultural improvement, ...
How long and how much? Bringing a biotech crop to market costs $116 million and takes 16.5 years
Farmers are increasingly faced with the need to produce more food from fewer resources and under less predictable growing conditions ...
‘No association between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma’: Independent scientific panel review challenges activist cancer claims
In an independent critical scientific review of the existing meta-analyses of studies on the potential health hazards of exposure to ...
Agriculture originated in the Middle East’s Fertile Crecent. Who were the world’s first farmers?
The first signs of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle are found in the so-called ‘Fertile Crescent’, a region in the ...
Viewpoint: ‘Green enlightenment’ ahead? Why Scotland needs to embrace crop genetic engineering
Scotland is a wee country that has always punched above its weight in agricultural innovation. Some of the best crop ...
Kernza: The perennial wheat that could inject sustainability into commodity farming
Most of the cereal crops we grow now, like corn, soy, and wheat, are annual crops. They’re planted and harvested ...
Do climate change threats mean we might have to abandon meat production? These regenerative farmers in Canada say ‘no’
Canadians eat two times more meat than the global average, exacerbating the problem of carbon emissions produced by our food ...
‘These seeds were stored so that future generations could restore them’: Russian invaders destroyed Ukraine’s plant biodiversity gene bank housed in Kharkiv
One of the world’s largest, the National Gene Bank named after V.Ya. Yuriev National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, ...
Gene editing key to sustainable agriculture in Africa, scientists say
Africa must update its regulations to accommodate the gene-edited crops needed to sustainably intensify agriculture to feed the continent’s growing ...
Space farming: Plants grow in soil collected 50 years ago during Apollo lunar missions
In the early days of the space age, the Apollo astronauts took part in a visionary plan: Bring samples of ...
‘Expecting farmers to do cultivation as it was done 100 years back is not something we want’: Why organic farming in India is falling far short of hyped promises
Ever wondered why organic farming hasn't taken off given the stated benefits that are reeled out by the powers that ...
Nigeria begins national trials for GM maize
Nigeria is set to begin national performance trials (NPT) for genetically modified (GM) TELA maize as the West African nation ...
Viewpoint: Seed wars — How Russell Brand gets ‘Green Neo-Colonialism’ wrong
"Why Is Bill Gates Buying Up Stolen Native American Land?" British comedian and actor Russell Brand asked in a recent ...
