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: Why Washington should sharply increase funding for intensive agricultural to address climate change, spur sustainability
The 20th century was a time of massive changes in US agriculture. From farmers scraping a living out of the ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pro-science lobby’? Europe’s continued failure to keep up with crop biotechnology innovation suggests a new approach is needed
In a recent Politico Brussels debate on the future of new plant breeding technologies within the EU’s Farm2Fork strategy, a ...
Viewpoint: ‘Regenerative’ is replacing ‘organic’ as the latest green farming fad. Here’s why the reality falls far short of the hype
Politicians have a complicated relationship with science. When they think the evidence comports with their political goals, they love scientists ...
Viewpoint: Ideology not science — Here’s why NBC News’ factually inaccurate reporting on the ‘dangers’ of the weedkiller glyphosate sets a dangerous precedent
What happens when an online information resource leans into clickbait? It’s annoying but generally harmless entertainment. When it’s a resource ...
Viewpoint: The still-shaky future of the alternative meat markets
People like the taste of meat and that alone explains why we have plant-based and other alternative forms of meat ...
Viewpoint: King Charles’ resistance to crop biotechnology has been a royal pain. Can the former ‘Dunce of Wales’ shuck organic propaganda and embrace sustainable agriculture?
King Charles III has repeatedly demonstrated some of the pitfalls of the inbreeding that has plagued the royal families of ...
Viewpoint: How reporters regularly botch food nutrition studies
We've reached a point where you must assume everything the media says about nutrition is false. This is a drastic ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative farming and Big Ag — Organic agriculture is no longer just ‘family farms’
According to our “friends” at the EWG, “American consumers spent a total of $20.4 billion on organic fruits and vegetables, ...
Growing rice in the ocean? CRISPR might be utilized to tweak ancient genes could be a future superfood
Around 75 million years ago, a remarkable group of flowering plants known as seagrasses migrated back into the oceans from ...
Viewpoint: Once a biotechnology innovator, Mexico puts its farm economy in a vise, jeopardizes grain trade with the US with GMO and herbicide bans
In power since sweeping to victory in 2018, Mexican center-left president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has relentlessly targeted conventional ...
Viewpoint: Count the distortions — Organic industry-funded Carey Gillam misrepresents science and court decision to further obsessive campaign against weedkiller glyphosate
f glyphosate is such a deadly pesticide, why do activist groups have to lie about it? That's the question I ...
Viewpoint: Will King Charles abandon his kooky ideas about agriculture and help accelerate Britain’s embrace of sustainable biotechnology tools?
England is in crisis. They lost a beloved figurehead this month but for decades prior were losing scientific ground. If ...
Viewpoint: Synthetic fertilizers in ideological crosshairs — Trade-offs between crop productivity and the environment
Want to fight climate change right now? Need to meet short-term targets for reductions in greenhouse gases? Then restrict applications of ...
Crucial misrepresentations about glyphosate continue to threaten agriculture. This scientist explains how the UN agency IARC likely manipulated the data
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, was introduced over forty-five years ago and is the most widely used ...
Viewpoint: How to turn Biden’s bioeconomy pledge from a PR exercise into proactive policy
President Biden has published an “Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American ...
4 in ten Americans are obese. Producers need to harness biotechnology to make spinach as tasty as popcorn
Nutritionists are trying to get us to eat healthier, particularly to lose weight or maintain it after having lost it ...
Viewpoint: ‘Underrated and underfunded’: It’s time for Congress to increase support for biotechnology tools in next farm bill
Biotechnology and breeding are important ways to improve agriculture: they make the plants we grow and animals we raise for ...
Viewpoint: Mandatory labeling of crop biotechnology-derived foods is a failed regulatory policy. Here’s why
Proponents of mandatory labeling of foods containing or derived from genetically modified (GM) crops have long claimed that their primary ...
Everyone wants ‘sustainable farming’ but defining a land use strategy that balances competing environmental and production goals is tricky
Faced with global food security concerns and soaring food and energy price inflation, the UK Government seems to have woken ...
Viewpoint: Reassessing the role of crop chemicals in setting an appropriate balance between productive agriculture and saving obscure species
Long-lasting herbicides don’t just control weeds. They also promote no-till farming, which helps farmers save costly tractor fuel and avoid ...
Viewpoint: ‘Would they know it if they saw it?’ Judge who ruled glyphosate could be carcinogenic demonstrates ignorance of science
A high-profile judicial decision in a federal appeals case has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revisit its finding that ...
Viewpoint: The ’natural food’ sham — ‘Effective communication on the ethics of science may be hindered by appeals to naturalness’
What could be more natural than organically grown Golden Promise barley, used to make craft-brewed pale ale? ...
Zambia’s traditional pig farmers poised to embrace reproductive biotechnology in break from European-inspired anti-biotech sentiments
Zambia’s traditional pig farmers are poised to further embrace reproductive biotechnology, including advanced forms of artificial insemination as an alternative ...
Viewpoint: War and global food crisis takes sharp toll on organic market. Maybe it’s time for a more sustainable alternative?
"Is organic’s luck about to run out?” So ran a recent headline in The Grocer magazine, and it got me thinking. Could food ...
‘Engineering safety’: How we can improve CRISPR for wider use in medicine and agriculture
I run a research lab at the University of Pittsburgh where we focus on developing tools that can control the ...
Viewpoint: Does ‘Big Ag’ promote GMOs as a backhanded way to peddle pesticides? Activist claims don’t withstand scrutiny
For more than two decades, anti-GMO groups have resorted to the same dishonest claims about the risks of genetically engineered ...
Risk, hazard and the precautionary principle: Why Europe gets crop biotechnology and chemical regulation so wrong
David Zaruk, Founder of GreenFacts, Environmental-Health Risk Governance Analyst, Professor at Odisee University College | July 24, 2018 Highlights: European ...
