Daily Food & Agriculture 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.
India’s moratorium on GM eggplant not based on food safety
Years after the government imposed an indefinite moratorium on the commercial release of Bt Brinjal, genetically-modified for resistance to the ...
WHO’s IARC’s new target: Red meat, which may be classified, along with glyphosate, as carcinogen
In March, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) made headlines when it declared that glyphosate, ...
Single letter in corn’s DNA big factor in evolution of today’s corn
About 10,000 years ago, the teosinte plant underwent a mutation that would change the world. The tough greenish husks surrounding its ...
Study concludes consumers would not view GMO label as warning
There is an economic and political battle taking place in America over the labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods. As ...
Organic agriculture ‘unscientific, heavily subsidized marketing gimmick’
Consumers of organic foods are getting both more and less than they bargained for. On both counts, it’s not good ...
Have humans manipulated ‘natural’ foods before modern GMOs? Look at a Renaissance painting
Over time, we've bred watermelons to have the bright red color we recognize today. That fleshy interior is actually the ...
Farmers now planting generic GMO soybeans as Monsanto patent expires
Billy Maddox planted 100 acres of Roundup Ready soybeans this year. The big news is he didn’t pay Monsanto a ...
We should label GMOs–Not because of dangers but because they are safe
Recently the House of Representatives found itself with a surprising group of allies: scientists. The House voted to ban state requirements that ...
Journalists tour ‘belly of the beast’ Monsanto in unique journalist bootcamp
I went to a four-day journalism program on food and agriculture put on by the National Press Foundation (NPF), and the ...
To make meat greener, make it more efficiently
Meat consumption is increasing around the world as countries become wealthier. That leaves us with the practical meat question — that is, the ...
Video: Monsanto spars with Australia’s Undercurrent over glyphosate, ‘world food domination’
The Guardian hosted a scathing video on Monsanto's business practices and history by Undercurrent, an online news show. It then ...
White strawberries? How genetics is creating the berry of the future
For a little berry, the genetics of the strawberry are astoundingly complex. Humans have two sets of chromosomes, making inherited ...
Methane reducing genetically modified rice in development
Not all climate-change mitigation involves changing human habits. In a paper in Nature, scientists unveiled a new genetically modified rice plant ...
Monsanto and ag giants ‘own’ global seed business? No. 7200 seed companies in Europe alone.
The seed market in Europe contains nearly 7,200 seed companies, totaling more than 50,000 employees and accounts for 20 percent of the ...
GMO food labeling bill opens door to political interference in science
On Thursday, July 23, the “DARK” side took a hit. By a vote of 275 to 150, the House of ...
Atlantic latest liberal publication to oppose mandatory GMO labeling
On Thursday, July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban states from requiring special labels ...
Humans began farming sooner that scientists thought
When did humans first begin farming? Scientists have long thought that our prehistoric ancestors didn't start raising crops until some 12,000 ...
Bacteria genetically engineered to make indigo could make dying jeans ‘greener’
Blue jeans get their signature color from indigo, a dye. Producing that indigo releases chemicals that can pollute water and ...
EU fights ‘STOP TTIP’ activists campaign maligning US crops with YouTube videos
In early 2013, President Barack Obama's call for a U.S.-EU trade deal generated such optimism in Europe that the graffiti ...
How one farmer uses GMO corn to reduce pesticides, increase sustainability
In a wide, brown field, Bret Davis opens a pocketknife with a click, kneels down and scrapes through a furrow ...
Gene editing could end cruelty to dehorned dairy cows–unless GMO opponents derail it
Most of the roughly 9 million dairy cows in the United States have been dehorned—with an iron, clippers, or caustic ...
How low-quality research is used as activist propaganda
The paper published in Agricultural Sciences by Shiva Ayyadurai presents a hypothesis that transgenic soybeans are high in formaldehyde and ...
Mental health leading cause of farmer suicide in India, not indebtedness from buying GMO seeds
For over a decade, farmer suicides in India has been a serious public policy concern. More recently, this has led ...
80% of Americans demand mandatory labeling of ASOs–Artificially Selected Organisms
A new petition to Whitehouse.gov demands mandatory labeling for all “artificially selected organisms” (ASOs). The petition reads: ASO plants or ...
Food and ideology don’t mix: There’s not one way to feed world
There’s an unbreachable divide between advocates of modern conventional agriculture and, essentially, everyone else, from the mainstream (organic, local, anti-GMO) ...
Bees not dying; Europe should lift neonics ban
Brussels banned a class of pesticides to avert a ‘beepocalypse’ that wasn’t happening. Now bugs threaten crops, and farmers may ...
GMOs contain formaldehyde? Kevin Folta challenge: ‘Let’s cooperate on lab analysis’ (crickets)
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai recently published a systems biology paper in Agricultural Sciences. The report left much to be desired, and ...
