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
‘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 ...
Glyphosate can harm pregnant women living near farms? Carelessly-written article based on the same authors’ more sober academic study shows how misinformation metastasizes
Authors claim glyphosate “health concerns”- but what do the data actually say? ...
Are pesticide residues on food something to worry about?
Just like anything that goes into your body, it’s the dose (the amount) that matters ...
Will England emerge as a world innovator in gene-edited crops?
Brexit has been a disaster for the UK. It has not spurred the great economic revival that many of the ...
A llama-inspired way to protect crops
Most of us will never see a live llama except at a zoo unless we have an opportunity to travel ...
Pesticides and Food: It’s not a black or white issue — Has pesticide use decreased since the introduction of GMO crops?
What is the truth about crop pesticides and their residues in food in 2018? ...
Viewpoint: Perversity activism — How European anti-biotechnology NGOs end up promoting commodity-crop farming, consolidating the seed market and undermining sustainability
One of the most attractive advantages of NGTs is the low cost of entry for innovators. Labs in developing countries ...
Viewpoint: Activists shift tactics on glyphosate, attacking independent European science-oversight agencies that have unanimously found the herbicide safe
Glyphosate ate the world! Every single day another serious disease, from all types of cancer to Parkinson’s, is attributed to ...
Viewpoint: ‘We need to fend off the sophistry and mendacity of anti-innovation, anti-biotechnology activists’ — Science must be evaluated in the light of tradeoffs
The adage “Follow the science” when formulating public policy has much to recommend it, but it’s not as straightforward as ...
Viewpoint: Here’s how zealous environmental groups dupe politicians about the ‘widespread dangers’ of many safe and effective pesticides
Pesticides used in agriculture have long been the subject of controversy and misinformation – and the attention of regulators. Since ...
Viewpoint: Scientifically illiterate claim that aspartame causes cancer illustrates again the escalating politicization of science
If you have been in science media for any period of time, you have seen a predictable pattern; epidemiologists look ...
Analysis: Do neonicotinoid and glyphosate pesticides threaten bees? A reassessment
"The honeybee is in no way endangered. If there’s a top ten list of what’s killing honey bee colonies, I’d ...
Viewpoint: Rejecting simplistic organic farming — Instead of worrying about which farming system is more ‘natural’, which is impossible to define, focus on sustainability
Back in 2004, Mendocino County in California hit the headlines after becoming the first county in the United States to vote ...
GLP podcast/video: Many Americans still reject evolution; should we worry? Top-10 food myths, debunked; Farmers finally growing Golden Rice
The creation-evolution debate has fallen out of the spotlight in recent years, but many Americans still reject Darwin's theory. Should ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate rabbit hole — Will the ethically-compromised International Agency for Cancer (IARC) lead Europe to embrace a scientifically-challenged Green Deal?
What chemicals or environmental exposures are likely to cause cancer? That’s a complex question with a wide variance in views ...
Disaster interrupted: Which farming system better preserves insect populations: Organic or conventional?
A three-year run of fragmentary Armageddon-like studies had primed the journalism pumps and settled the media framing about the future ...
What may delay or derail the European Union’s proposed deregulation of gene-edited crops? Is there room for compromise with organic opponents?
The July proposal by the European Commission, which is the Executive arm of the European Union, to significantly liberalize not ...
Anti-chemical activists up in arms as European Union leans toward reauthorizing use of weedkiller glyphosate. Here’s the science EU should consider
Does the controversial weedkiller Roundup, made by Bayer and marketed in generic form by more than 30 companies as glyphosate, ...
GLP podcast/video: ‘GMO’ probiotic may prevent hangovers; Surrogacy turns women into ‘children factories’? The case for drug patents
Biotech startup Zbiotics says its genetically engineered bacterium can reduce the risk of hangovers. Is there solid science behind the ...
Serotonin-boosting foods and fatty acids that can lift your mood
One in four Americans currently suffers from anxiety or depression, correlating directly to serotonin levels found in the body. Normal serotonin levels ...
Biotechnology timeline: Humans have manipulated genes since the ‘dawn of civilization’
The history of biotechnology shows how humans have been manipulating nature for our benefit for a long time—and how modern ...
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 ...
GLP podcast/video: Chemophobia brings left and right together; Scientists should fight disinfo on X; Sudafed scandal explained
Why do so many people on the political left and right, who agree on almost nothing, share a deep-seated fear ...
BBC corrects its misleading educational site hyping the benefits of organic and the alleged environmental problems of GMOs
The BBC has revised misleading and factually inaccurate statements about different farming systems on its exam revision website BBC Bitesize ...
How effective and safe are current-generation pesticides?
it is important to balance risks with the benefits that pesticides provide ...
‘Quantum shift’: UK regulators replacing science-strangling ultra-precautionary crop biotech regulations to accelerate adoption of CRISPR and other precise breeding technologies
A ‘quantum shift’ by the Food Standards Agency in its planned approach to regulating gene edited food and feed products ...
6th sense? The mystery of tasting salt is so indecipherable, scientists say we have two separate systems to decode it
We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the ...
