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
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 ...
GLP podcast: Break out of your echo chamber—an ER physician explains how to win over vaccine skeptics
Dr. Liza Dunn has an impressive resume. She's cared for malnourished children in developing countries, treated drug overdoses in the ...
Plastic waste as food? Microorganisms may one day be able to feed a growing world population
In 2019, an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense released a call for research projects to help the military deal with the ...
Viewpoint: ‘Doubt factory’—How a French journalist manufactures facts to manipulate the media, enrich toxic tort law firms and undermine science
Editor's Introduction: Readers who live outside of France have likely never heard of Le Monde environmental journalist Stéphane Foucart. He ...
Viewpoint: Understanding risk—Why does trace pesticide residue spark intense fear?
At speaking engagements, I would often remind audiences of Bruce Ames’ quote on coffee and pesticides. In an attempt to ...
Viewpoint: Fears grow that the biotechnology revolution could pass the United States by. What can be done?
Eric Schmidt, a commissioner on the federal National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology and formerly the CEO and Chairman of ...
Viewpoint: The politicization of food safety—what can we expect if Trump wins the presidency
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: science is political. Well, technically, how science is implemented is political, ...
Brewing longevity: Reassessing the health impact of coffee
Coffee gives us a great morning boost – and it is not just the caffeine! A recent study published in ...
Part II: How bureaucratic infighting and dairy industry lobbying have undermined the federal response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak
In early 2023, as news of H5N1 avian influenza (“bird flu”) spreading among dairy cows reached the White House, the ...
Part I: USDA’s dereliction in containing bird flu could cause the outbreak to escalate into a deadly epidemic
When dairy cows in Texas started falling ill last spring, alarm bells started to ring. Veterinarians had found feverish cows ...
Podcast: Glyphosate doesn’t cause Celiac disease or alter gluten structure
Disinformation clouds the public understanding of science, especially technology in agriculture and medicine. So when a leading journal publishes false ...
Viewpoint: Britain’s new Labor government signals it will move forward legislation to open the door to CRISPR and other crop gene editing innovations
There are increasingly positive signs that the newly-elected Labour administration will shortly bring forward the secondary legislation needed to implement ...
Debunking GMO Myths: No, GMOs aren’t causing cancer. Yes, Non-GMO labeling is a scam
Few topics in science, health and food elicit more fear than the phrase GMO, when everything we eat is technically ...
