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.
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 ...
Monsanto refutes claims in Neil Young’s documentary
Monsanto, a company that manufactures genetically engineered seeds for agriculture that has sparked the ire of Neil Young, has issued ...
Rice with barley genes emits less greenhouse gas
A new type of genetically modified (GM) rice might significantly lessen the impact of agriculture on the climate. The plant, ...
Open letter to Consumer Reports: Organic alternatives to glyphosate not necessarily safer
Dear Consumer Reports, In the article Beat Those Weeds (Which was, somewhat ironically, published in the YOUR ADVOCATE section of ...
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 ...
Examining claims GMO cotton causing Indian suicide epidemic
One major accusation of evil on the part of GMOs and Monsanto is forcing Indian farmers into debt through expensive seed that cannot be ...
Biofortifying crops for better nutrition helps improve health of poorest
When I started my career as an economist 30 years ago, I had no idea that I would eventually work ...
New study challenges Moms Across America claim glyphosate present in mothers’ breastmilk
Washington State University scientists have found that glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, does not accumulate in mother's ...
House passes voluntary GMO labeling law as Senate girds for fight
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, July 23, passed a hotly debated measure that would set up a system ...
East African countries face harsh biosafety restrictions in expanding gene editing research
For scientists across the globe in agricultural value chain to counteract the upcoming challenges likely to be faced by factors ...
GM canola becoming popular in Australia as farmers see yields increasing
Canola was once considered only useful as a break crop to clean-up weeds in paddocks, according to agronomist Greg Sefton, Cobram, ...
UK lifts EU ban on neonics to allow farmers to fight pests
Farmers will be able to use blacklisted pesticides linked to serious harm in bees after the UK government temporarily lifted ...
As bugs become resistant to Bt maize in South Africa, new practices needed to delay resistence
In the case of maize, the GM crops planted and consumed in South Africa are known as Bt-crops, so named ...
Chilean salmon industry aims to replace antibiotics with biotech bacteria
In an effort to reduce the use of antibiotics in the Chilean salmon farming industry, researchers in the South American ...
Nutrition professionals need to enter conversation on GMOs
I originally discussed the need for nutrition professionals to enter the genetic engineering (GE) conversation/GMO debates on the American Society ...
After cancer assessment of farm chemicals, farmers still comfortable with using herbicides
Farmers count on chemical herbicides to keep their fields weed-free. In the last few months though, scientists brought together by ...
GM rice could address hunger, cut methane emissions 90%, fight climate change
It’s food for climate conscious consumers. A strain of rice has been genetically engineered to produce less methane. Rice agriculture ...
Chef Tom Colicchio weighs in against the ‘DARK act’
It’s not surprising that as a chef, I want to know what I am feeding my customers. It’s also not ...
WTO members raise concerns over EU, China biotech restrictions
The World Trade Organization committee dealing with food safety, animal and plant health, formally known as the Committee on Sanitary ...
Chipotle loses integrity hyping non-GMO menu, as growth and traffic sour
In April, the high-class Mexican food chain Chipotle announced that it was going GMO-free. That is, the company would no ...
Neil Young donates $100,000 to fight Vermont’s GMO lawsuit
Canadian rocker Neil Young joined Gov. Peter Shumlin to voice his support for Vermont’s GMO labeling law, which requires food ...
Audio: Bill Nye suggests ‘Proudly GMO’ label
Just in case Part 1 wasn’t controversial enough, Bill Nye and Chuck Nice are back to answer new fan questions ...
Democratic critics of voluntary GMO labeling bill launch attacks
Critics of a GMO regulation bill are proposing amendments that would add restrictions or exemptions to the legislation and allow ...
