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
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 ...
Viewpoint: 15 explanations for why activists lie and try to scare people about ‘killer’ chemicals, genetically engineered crops and nuclear energy
We always hear NGOs saying that we cannot trust industry, that we have to exclude industry evidence or that industry ...
Cow burps are one of the biggest contributors to global warming, Here is what farmers are doing to curtail methane release
The Dirt Did you know cattle can play a positive role in climate change? Farmers and ranchers are proactively working ...
Why bananas are the original ‘frankenfood’
The banana has shaped civilizations and sparked scientific inquiry. From its origins in the lush forests of New Guinea to ...
Viewpoint: Want to stay well? Avoid every product sold by the wellness industry
In the health and wellness space fear is often used as a marketing technique, with patent medicine salesmen, pharmaceutical companies, ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr., Vani Hari and the Environmental Working Group are trying to dupe you—How the organic movement built its reputation on chemophobia
There is a LOT of misinformation out there when it comes to our foods, including how our foods are grown ...
Here’s how the organic industry greenwashes its commitment to regenerative agriculture
Think-tank reports Soil Association ‘greenwashing’ claims to advertising watchdog Pro-innovation think-tank Science for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA) has written to the Advertising ...
Roadmap for the incoming Trump administration: Friend or foe of US agriculture?
President-elect Trump has promised his second administration will move aggressively to deliver relief from regulatory burdens in a number of ...
Viewpoint: Lower-yield agroecology promises ignore evidence that advanced plant breeding, modern fertilizers and other inputs needed to grow more food on less land
Calls for transforming food systems have grown over the past several years. International governance organizations, such as the Food and ...
Viewpoint: The US government and corporations are funneling billions into cover crop research to combat climate change. Is the money and the hype worth it?
Cover cropping, the practice of planting secondary crops during the off-season to improve soil health, has roots stretching back to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Progressives think rural people are dumb rubes’—Farmers know that neonicotinoid insecticides do not harm honeybees
Minnesota is having a challenging year, so challenging they are approaching California as the wackiest state, according to other states ...
Viewpoint: New York Times’ series ‘What to Eat on a Burning Planet’ is elitist hubris (and also gets the science of climate change wrong)
Journalists, academics and policymakers often talk about the “global food system.” But if there is such a thing, it isn’t ...
The hornet has landed: Scientists combat new honeybee killer in US
In early August 2023, a beekeeper near the port of Savannah, Georgia, noticed some odd activity around his hives. Something ...
How has climate change reduced crop yields over the past quarter century
Agriculture is arguably the industry most sensitive to changes in the climate. Crops need CO2, water — not too little ...
‘Science won the battle but lost the war’: Ten years after routing GMO deniers in historic Q2 debate, geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam worries about the technology’s future
[O]n December 3, 2014, I participated in an Intelligence Squared (IQ2) debate in the Kaufmann [T]heater [in] New York City ...
Breakthrough Institute report: New technologies are poised to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture — if public financing is forthcoming
In recent years, startups, university researchers, and government laboratories have developed a suite of new technologies capable of revolutionizing agriculture ...
Viewpoint: How to resist the allure of science disinformation swamping social media
If you haven’t been following my social channels, I just returned home from CSICon, a fantastic conference filled with presentations ...
Viewpoint: Broken trust — American Association of Pediatrics embraces a rogue scientist’s anti-GMO and crop chemical obsession
Trust is essential when parents seek advice from their pediatricians. It must be fact-based and free from politics and special ...
While comprehensive gene editing liberalization in the European Union still appears distant, individual countries are making research progress
Using the gene editing method researchers at the University of Milan have started field trials of a rice genotype that ...
Viewpoint: Land sharing vs land sparing — How can we increase crop yields without sacrificing climate and biodiversity goals
It is 12 months since I highlighted the scientific evidence pointing to the urgent need to take forward a land sparing ...
More than 40 gene-edited crops will be available to European farmers only when the EU deregulates crop biotechnology
In agricultural production, high-yielding variety genotypes are effective in increasing yield per unit area, beyond the contributions of fertilizer and ...
Viewpoint: Vani Hari’s food recipe: The Food Babe promotes 100% fear, 0% facts
If you haven’t heard of Vani Hari, consider yourself fortunate. For many of us in the science, nutrition, and public ...
Why Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be catastrophic for science and America’s health
Today is a dark day for the US, the rest of society, and our planet. The above header was actually ...
Viewpoint: Is the age of environmental activism coming to an end?
For the last 50 years, from the time of Greenpeace activists chasing whaling ships to today’s green NGO coalitions directing ...
