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.
Sustainability benefits of crop biotechnology innovations begin to shine as investors look to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) guidance
The financial industry is undergoing an awakening. It's the revelation that businesses that prioritize people and the planet can be ...
As organic foods go mainstream and prices remain high, survey shows ‘growing skepticism about organic claims’
As organic continues to go mainstream with broader reach outside of the natural channel where it began, it faces increased ...
Cracking wheat’s yield genetic code: Breakthrough grain discovery could provide gains for farmers and consumers
Researcher Jorge Dubcovsky and his team have identified one of the genes in wheat that increases yield — the holy ...
Climate change is making water saltier and killing crops. Genetic engineering offers possible solution
There is a surge in saltiness across all inhabited continents today. Climate change is far from the only cause. Deltas ...
Viewpoint: EU’s Farm-to-Fork policy inevitably means plowing rainforests to meet Europe’s expanding food needs
Meet the European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy. Considered the EU’s Green New Deal, the strategy’s goal is to make the continent ...
‘Organic revolution’ in farming? Switzerland and Sri Lanka offer lessons on downside of pushing too aggressively
Amid deepening concern over the damage agrochemicals cause to the environment and public health, organic farming is widely touted as ...
Independent Swedish study finds switch from conventional farming to organic would require 130% additional land to maintain yields
Highlights The distribution of crop and fodder production in organic and conventional farms is established for eight regions of Sweden ...
Viewpoint: Challenging scaremongering about alleged dangers of eating too much yogurt, cheese and other dairy products
In 2016, a study looked into whether dietary dairy would increase the circulating levels of oestrogen in mice – the researchers ...
Confused about difference between genetic engineering and gene editing? Your questions answered
The modern techniques for crop improvement are generally referred to as genetic modification or genetic engineering. Through this technology, a ...
Fate of glyphosate approval in Europe? Contentious stakeholder feedback delays recommendations till mid 2023
Due to an unprecedented flood of stakeholder input, relevant EU agencies announced their risk assessment on glyphosate will only come ...
Biofuels reconsidered: Do we grow too much corn in the United States?
The supposed benefit of biofuel is that, although it still releases carbon dioxide when it burns, that carbon was drawn ...
Viewpoint: ‘Organic farming folly’ — Bjorn Lomborg says Ukraine war has exposed Europe’s ‘self-indulgent obsession’ with low-yield, unsustainable farming
As food prices skyrocket and the [Ukraine] conflict threatens a global food crisis, we need to face another unpopular reality: ...
Four ways that GMOs can save lives
The Green Revolution, which ushered in a wave of high-yielding crop varieties, is credited with saving at least 1 billion lives. It ...
‘Third way’ regenerative farming: Syngenta CEO calls for cooperation between organics and crop biotechnology to address food crises, sparking ‘grotesque’ rebuke from organic activist
Erik Fyrwald, the CEO of the Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta, has called for an end to organic farming to avoid ...
GM insect-resistant corn up for approval in Kenya could help fight devastating aflatoxin poisonings
Currently, [Kenya] is considering the approval and commercialisation of Bt maize. Although the intended purpose for Bt maize is insect ...
What’s next for glyphosate cases? Bayer’s hopes US Supreme Court would overturn Roundup liability verdicts dims as US Department of Justice asks SCOTUS to reject company’s cancer claims appeal
Bayer’s latest legal setback in its Roundup saga looks equally toxic to American justice. Shares in the German drugs-to-agrochemicals group ...
Salt-proof, drought-tolerant wheat developed in Egypt — but GMO ban remains in place
The Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, headed by Dr. Amr El-Hajj, announced that the agricultural research scientists in the authority have ...
Viewpoint: ‘We are paying for genetic engineering bashing by groups that have used fear to put forward organic-centric diet’, says Canadian agri-food professor
About 15 per cent of all calories on Earth come from wheat. Corn covers a lot of calorific ground as ...
GMO cowpeas cut chemical spraying by 3/4 in Nigerian trials, but ‘environmentalist’ opponents lobby for ban
Research conducted by the Cornell University Alliance for Science, an independent nonprofit research institute, observed that Nigeria imports an estimated ...
Sustainable meat? Debate over the benefits (or drawbacks) of cell-based beef and chicken more nuanced than critics and supporters acknowledge
In 2016 I was pretty optimistic about lab grown meat, and now I am still optimistic but more tempered. I think ...
‘Textbook case of how a government can cause a debt crisis’: Organic food mandate and agricultural chemical ban gutted Sri Lanka’s tea export market
Before 2019, Sri Lanka was self-sufficient in food. The government elected that year banned pesticides so that only organic farming ...
How genetically-engineered salmon could help preserve wild populations — if it isn’t blocked by anti-GMO activist groups
Salmon are iconic keystone species across the northern Pacific and Atlantic basins. Salmon is also a prized human delicacy. Wild ...
Viewpoint: What are the most serious hurdles blocking mass adoption of gene editing in agriculture?
Since the academic discovery of gene editing, farmers, researchers and all of agriculture have heard many promises about its potential ...
‘Consumers have finally become aware of certain realities’: Rising inflation and food crisis have cut organic produce sales in France
The increase in the prices of fuels, gas and foodstuffs has directly impacted the household budget to the point of ...
Kenyan cows produce 1/10th as much milk as those in Britain — If adopted, gene editing could dramatically improve quality and safety of African livestock
East Coast Fever (ECF) is rampant [in African countries]. ECF, which is caused by protozoan parasites spread by ticks, kills ...
Viewpoint: Guilt-tripping kids about meat consumption? Rancher mom challenges view that cell-based meat is preferable to real thing
In the latest issue of this paid subscription publication that goes to 250,000 schools across the United States, Junior Scholastic ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s organic-centered farm policy is a blueprint for what the United States should not do
The EU's "farm to fork" strategy has been in the works for some years; it represents the overall sustainability ambitions of the ...
