Food & Agriculture Features
The GLP explores the role of genetic engineering in food production and the polarized debate surrounding it. We highlight the work of our own writers, as well as that of contributors from around the Web. The GLP does not take a position on genetics-related issues; any opinions expressed belong to the authors.
Categories include:
- Chemicals and pesticides
- Organics
- Conventional crops
- New breeding technologies
- Animal biotechnology
- Food systems
- Sustainability
- Regulations
- Politics
- Ideology
Viewpoint: Whitewash — How four obstructionist journals and their academic enablers are corrupting reporting on the science of chemicals and crop biotechnology
In 2022 and 2023, two papers analyzing the intersection of genetic engineering and disinformation were published. Neither were in very ...
Part II — Viewpoint: A case study of how organic advocates massage data from meta-studies to promote their ideological agenda
What is the magnitude of the data fraud polluting scientific research and what are the sources of it? ...
Viewpoint: What’s the science (if any) behind the regenerative agriculture movement?
As interest in regenerative agriculture reaches fever pitch across the value chain, NIAB is preparing the ground for a major ...
Part I — Viewpoint: Why is trust in scientific research at an all time low?
The validity of much published scientific research is questionable – so how much trust should we place in it? ...
Anti-GMO Advocacy Funding Tracker: Vast network of donors and NGOs seed doubt about crop biotechnology
Who is David and who is Goliath when it comes to the GMO debate? Anti-biotech activists have long maintained that ...
Viewpoint: American Academy of Pediatrics fiasco — International Agency for the Research on Cancer is the cancer at the heart of the anti-glyphosate movement
In today’s world, due to the lopsided impact of the bullshit asymmetry principle, the internet is overflowing with misinformation. However, amidst ...
Here’s how we can genetically modify soil microbiomes to reduce use of synthetic fertilizers and improve yields
There has been a great deal of buzz in recent years about the importance of the human microbiome; much of it ...
Viewpoint: Are corporations and Western countries shackling African agriculture to suit their interests, as anti-GMO groups claim? Or are the activists doing the shackling?
Genetically enhanced (GE) crops, pesticides, and fertilizers have fueled an explosion in food production over the last six decades. Following ...
Viewpoint: Nobel laureates and 1,000 other scientists plead with European parliamentarians to ‘reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering’ over gene editing
As the European Parliament prepares for a key vote on gene editing regulations next week, an open letter signed by 35 Nobel ...
Are children and pregnant women risking their health by eating “GMO” foods? The American Association of Pediatrics controversially says ‘yes’. The real question: Is the AAP endangering the food vulnerable?
Are foods grown using genetically modified seeds hazardous to our health? Scientists, nutritionists and the global medical establishment say ‘no’. ...
GLP podcast/video: Lab-grown meat divides scientists; The rise of ‘Big Weed’; American Academy of Pediatrics goes anti-GMO?
Sustainable agriculture advocates are split over the potential benefits of cell-based meat. Why are these longtime allies divided over this ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming and sustainable agriculture are often in conflict. Here’s why
hen it comes to denying science, California leads America, and sometimes the world. In early 2020, for example, when the ...
African scientists challenge activist claims that crop biotechnology revolution spreading across Africa threatens continent’s plant biodiversity
Do genetically modified (GM) pose a threat to the Africa’s plant biodiversity? ...
Effort to rescue the almost-extinct American chestnut tree hits a snag, as rift develops between major sponsoring organizations over gene-editing techniques
The American Chestnut Foundation, a nonprofit where [Jared] Westbrook is director of science, has poured years of work into a ...
Viewpoint: Crop biotechnology and chemical pseudo-science exposed — Here’s how the ‘dark money’, tort-lawyer funded Heartland Study dupes journalists and co-ops universities
Until the 1990s, research was often low-budget, done in government agencies or industry funded. But as universities acquired expensive analytical ...
GLP podcast/video: ‘Paraquat Papers’ — Latest pesticide scandal wrongly links weedkiller to Parkinson’s
Thousands of pending lawsuits allege that the weedkiller paraquat causes Parkinson's Disease (PD), a connection its manufacturer tried to hide ...
Phony Whistleblower Gambit: This is how far some environmental activist groups are willing to go to corrupt science for money and ideological gain
Environmental activists rely on several go-to tactics when fomenting fear of pesticides. One of their favorite methods is recruiting fake ...
Viewpoint: Without measurable metrics, ‘regenerative agriculture’ is often little more than a data-less claim and a form of greenwashing. Here’s how to make it more science based and sustainable
In a previous column for SSA, just under a year ago, I highlighted concerns that the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a ...
Dissecting claims about Monsanto suing farmers for accidentally planting patented seeds
Much to the dismay of anti-GMO activists, courts around the world including SCOTUS have consistently upheld the rights of companies ...
Viewpoint: While environmentalists and journalists look the other way, anti-vax, pro-organic ‘dark money whore’ US Right to Know partners with organic food and tort lawyer hustlers to undermine science
In the introduction to this Firebreak series on how foundations fund activists, I noted there were a wide variety of foundations: ...
GLP podcast/video: Dangers of slanted science coverage; Media falsely claims glyphosate could harm pregnant women
Exaggerated media coverage distorts the public's understanding of critically important scientific issues, and the consequences can be dire. How do ...
How ideological foundations and ‘dark money’ seed activist environmental movement and undermine science
Time was that non-profits were funded by their membership dues or individual donations, loose change drums at airports and clipboard ...
Race, gender and science: Should positionality statement ‘identity biographies’ be mandatory on science research papers?
In Defense of Universalism in Science In a November article in Science magazine, journalist Rachael Zamzow informs us that many ...
Viewpoint: Are ESG — environmental, social and governance — goals the next step in corporate citizenship or an activist imposition?
Corporate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance measurements have recently polarised the business community. Many see it as the next ...
25+ years into the crop biotechnology revolution, ‘Canadian prairie farmers are among the most sustainable on the planet’. Europe? Not so much
Canadian agriculture has embraced innovative technologies and products. Canadian farmers rapidly adopted genetically modified crops following their approvals in the ...
Viewpoint: Never heard of the Heartland Health Research Alliance? Here’s how the organic- and tort-lawyer funded sham research center generates disinformation about glyphosate and other farm chemicals
Where would science be if an influential institute today was established by tort lawyers to produce research solely for use ...
‘Perhaps GMOs are closer to natural processes than we think’: How genetic modification mimics natural evolution of plants
Genetically modified (GM) crops may be controversial, but similar processes happen naturally with wild plants. However, scientists have long been ...
