Food & Ag 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
How climate change is altering the look, taste and nutrition content of fruits and vegetables
The economic cost of food waste in Australia is staggering. It’s estimated $36.6 billion is lost to the economy every year ...
Viewpoint: Courts challenge the contrived but growing relationship between trial lawyers and environmental activists
For a decade now, a brigade of climate zealots, flanked by their legal consiglieres, has been waging a shadow war ...
Viewpoint: Biotechnology rejectionists and many regenerative farming advocates maintain that the Green Revolution caused more harm than good. Here are the facts.
After the Second World War, regional famines began to occur. Believing that increasing agricultural performance can be the solution to ...
Viewpoint: How to devolutionize American food and agriculture—RFK, Jr. has a clear disaster of a plan. Don’t say we haven’t been warned
Before nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services, President Donald Trump promised to let him ...
Messy patent, regulatory and ideological battles lie ahead in Europe as push continues to legalize CRISPR crop gene editing
Modern gene-editing technology, such as CRISPR/Cas technology, represents a ground-breaking advancement that has transformed our genetic engineering capabilities and has ...
The humble potato is undergoing a genetic revolution. Here’s how and what that means
In a field near the Dutch village of Angeren, a biotechnology company named Solynta grows potatoes in square plots, about 16 ...
Precision agriculture: Promoted as a revolutionary improvement in farming, the promise is finally coming to fruition
For 20 years, Pablo Sobron sought a better way to learn exactly what was in the soil, rock, or any other ...
The next ‘big thing’ in genetically modified crops: Drought-tolerant and herbicide resistant wheat. Here’s what you need to know
Archaeological evidence suggests that around 9,500 BCE, people in the Fertile Crescent began cultivating wheat as one of their first ...
Old Fashioned or aspartame sweetener: Which contains more dangerous chemicals?
Have you ever been to a snooty cocktail party and ordered a Diet Coke from the bar only to get the look? ...
Viewpoint: What is sustainability? What are pesticides? The way media and politicians define ideologically diffuse words shape policy – often for the worse
Reality is perceived by the definitions we give; the black and white lines we draw upon a grey canvas. So ...
Ideological science—How the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) promotes unscientific hysteria about red meat
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) designated processed meats (hot dogs, ...
Viewpoint: Africa needs to reject commercial agriculture and embrace small farms if it hopes to address food insecurity
Rates of hunger in Africa are unacceptably high and getting worse. The UN State of Food Security and Nutrition in the ...
GLP podcast: AI chatbot convinces student to commit suicide. ‘Smart’ agriculture isn’t so smart; Will alcohol warning labels save lives?
Another teenager has committed suicide following some horrifying encouragement from an AI chatbot to "please die." Who's at fault when ...
Biotechnology led to dramatic innovations in agriculture and human health in 2024
As 2024 fades into the rearview, it's a good time to reflect on the year that was—and what it might ...
European farmers concerned about climate change push to ground EU’s ‘Green Deal’ because of it restricts crop gene editing
Leveraging the proposed European Green Deal (EGD) announced in December 2019, the EU aims to become the first climate-neutral continent ...
Breakthrough Institute report: ‘Why genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market’
Genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market. Fertilizer runoff and nitrous oxide emissions remain massive issues for agricultural climate ...
Viewpoint: Agroecology and other variations on organic farming that seek to mimic nature are doomed to fail
Organic farming, regenerative agriculture, and agroecology all aim to mimic nature under the assumption that natural systems offer the best ...
MAHA v. Big Food: Will a left-MAGA coalition crystallize to fundamentally change the US food system?
The new Trump administration could be coming for your snacks. For years, the federal government has steered clear of regulating ...
Vertical farming won’t feed the world or even the poor. So what are its advantages?
Vertical farms look hi-tech and sophisticated, but the premise is simple – plants are grown without soil, with their roots ...
RFK Jr. claims to want healthy food, but demonizes the science that makes it possible
It’s been an... interesting couple of weeks, to put it mildly. Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. as Secretary of the ...
To help with climate change, carbon capture will have to evolve
More than 200 kilometers off Norway’s coast in the North Sea sits the world’s first offshore carbon-capture-and-storage project. Built in ...
GLP podcast: Modern farming—’a miracle of science’; extreme weather threatens our food supply? Activists promote retracted pesticide study
Food production has absolutely exploded since the 1960s, feeding billions more people while innovative technologies reduced the environmental impact of ...
Are plant-based meats healthier?
Unless you live in isolation from supermarkets, you've likely heard of plant-based meats — products made from plant-derived ingredients like ...
Should agriculture get the blame for antibiotic resistance?
Journalists are an easily spooked bunch. Where scientists see a problem in need of a solution, the press often sees ...
How GMO tobacco can improve infant formula and dairy-free plant-based milk
In an eclectic application of transgenic technology, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Davis describe retooling cells ...
Viewpoint: Canada’s new greenwashing bill that bans deliberately misleading information will require anti-GM activists to take down or radically revise their websites
On June 20th, 2024, The Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023 (Bill C-59) came into effect. The Bill covers a wide ...
Ignore the click bait. Despite the headlines, seed oils do not cause colorectal cancer
The fear-baiting is truly out of control these days. I can’t open a web browser or social media app without ...
