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: Large scale, Intensive, land-sparing farming is the sustainable future not the problem
The BBC’s coverage of farming and countryside issues, and its editorial bias in favour of small-scale, more extensive forms of ...
Viewpoint: Who is Phililp Landrigan — the scientist destroying the credibility of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Trust is essential when parents seek advice from their pediatricians. It must be fact-based and free from politics and special ...
Organic or conventional farming? Which system better preserves our fragile insect population
A three-year run of fragmentary Armageddon-like studies had primed the journalism pumps and settled the media framing about the future ...
Viewpoint: Consumers Report bungles science, promotes another food scare—No, Lunchables will not give your kids cancer
“Should you pack Lunchables for Your Kid’s School Lunch?” asks a piece in the April 9th edition of Consumer Reports ...
GLP podcast: Organic farming—solution to climate change or path to world hunger?
Here's some good news to break up the cacophony of alarmist environmental headlines you read weekly: global agricultural output has ...
Are all processed foods unhealthy? Time for a more nuanced rethink
After decades of searching, many scientists believe they have finally pinned down the main problem with our modern diets—the factor ...
Viewpoint: Spreading poison—How green activists pollute public discourse
In the week when the European Union Member States vote for the next European Parliament (plus a host of regional ...
Nutritional epigenetics: How life events can shape your genes and their impact on diet and health
Within the last century, researchers’ understanding of genetics has undergone a profound transformation ...
Food prices will climb everywhere as temperatures rise due to climate change – new research
Climate change, and specifically rising temperatures, may cause food prices to increase by 3.2% per year, according to a new ...
Australian glyphosate class action suit with 20,000 plaintiffs dismissed, judge says evidence supporting cancer claims lacking
This past July 24, Judge Michael Lee ruled on the carcinogenicity of RoundUp in a class action involving over 20,000 ...
Viewpoint: The EPA just banned a crop chemical. What does that say about activist claims that the agency has become a dupe of the chemical industry?
Last month, the EPA issued an emergency suspension of the herbicide Dacthal and has initiated a process to cancel all ...
Viewpoint: Challenging more misinformation about glyphosate: No, it does not cause Celiac disease or alter gluten structure
I can’t wait for the day when anti-science activists decide to cling to an entirely different pesticide to fixate on ...
Viewpoint: The Greens are wrong — Here’s why humanity is good for nature
Over the past few years, we have been subject to endless media reports on the devastating impact humanity is having ...
Viewpoint: ‘Complaining about failing crop yields in Africa without posing a solution is whining’ — Here’s what’s needed to reverse it
A recent research article— “Crop yields fail to rise in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa” — uses 7 models, ...
Viewpoint: Probiotics are not regulated by the FDA. Do they even work?
Probiotics, also referred to as live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), are products that contain live organisms, such as bacteria, that are found naturally ...
Is glyphosate weedkiller a danger to humans, bees and the environment? Addressing 10 controversial claims
Agricultural advances have made farming and our foods safer and more abundant than at any other time in history. Everyone ...
Viewpoint: Science colonialism — Europe and the United Nations are blocking crop biotechnology poised to address global hunger
Wealthy countries with natural 'breadbaskets' - places where it is easy to grow food - have so much abundance they ...
GLP podcast: Hot dogs probably don’t cause dementia; Subsidize plant burgers? Drinking fathers might damage fetal brain development
Processed read meat could increase your risk for dementia, a recent study contends. How robust are the results? Can the ...
Viewpoint: Here’s a reform roadmap to guide regulators as they seek to modernize oversight of the fast-innovating agricultural biotechnology industry
In 1986, the United States established a “Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology.” In the decades since, this policy ...
Reducing the impact of agricultural chemicals: Accelerated adoption of IPM—Integrated Pest Management—reduces the threat of weed resistance and chemical overuse
Modern pesticides have boosted agricultural efficiency and yields, reducing labor while controlling pests. However, regulatory pressures and inevitable pest resistance ...
GLP podcast: Treating brain diseases with parasites; FDA rejects ecstasy treatment for PTSD; $6 billion—the cost of baby powder lawsuits
A parasite that causes deadly infections may help doctors treat Parkinson's Disease. The FDA wants better evidence before it approves ...
Viewpoint: Weaponized incompetence? The ethical and science contradictions of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s controversial ‘probable carcinogen’ assessment of glyphosate
A plaintiff lawyer in a recent glyphosate litigation produced an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) document claiming that ...
Debunking the ‘MSG is harmful’ myth: How baseless stories spawn enduring food fears
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is the poster child for food additive fear, chemophobia, and the harms of using anecdotes as evidence ...
Is your cheese GMO? The Non-GMO Project and other activists claim 90% of cheeses in America are ‘tainted’. Here are the facts
In cheese production, the need to use traditional rennet obtained from calf stomachs has largely been removed because of a ...
GLP podcast: China bans ‘irresponsible’ germline editing; losing weight causes cancer? Modern culture could drive mental health issues
China has banned germline gene editing, calling the technology, "irresponsible and not permitted." A recent study suggested that losing weight ...
Hidden threat to wild bees? Honeybees, including those raised by well-meaning suburbanites and city-dweller hobbyists believing they are helping the environment
Canada is home to more than 800 species of wild bees — few may have noticed the diversity of native ...
Viewpoint: How can we dramatically increase agricultural yields sustainably and without using more land?
A 70% increase in global demand for food by 2050, set against urgent biodiversity and climate pressures, requires an unprecedented ...
