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: Reject anti-technology hyperbole — High-yield, intensive farming, agricultural sustainability and nature conversation can co-exist
By re-purposing the less productive agricultural land and creating farmland bird friendly habitat, songbird numbers doubled while arable crop yields ...
Whole Foods Magazine joins the ‘let’s peddle anti-GMO disinformation scare stories’ movement
Whole Foods Magazine published a June story titled GMOs: Basics to Know. “Although GMOs have been deemed safe,” the author alleged, ...
Viewpoint: Judge finds glyphosate is a likely carcinogen? Distinguishing between judicial decisions and science (they are not the same!)
EPA, along with hundreds of scientific studies, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in peer-reviewed journals, have found no link ...
Glyphosate detected in 80% of urine? Reason for alarm or deceptive data distortion?
Vilifying the safe herbicide glyphosate has been a long-time proxy for attacking modern conventional agriculture. Sold under the brand name ...
Viewpoint: France’s Le Monde leads media frenzy hyping flawed study claiming trace pesticide residues wipe out benefits of eating fruits and vegetables
A recent study suggested that pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables could counteract some of the nutritional benefits of consuming ...
Viewpoint: Anti-technology activists claim coronavirus outbreaks could be exacerbated by intensive farming. Here’s why they are dead wrong
It is often asserted that intensive livestock systems increase the risk of zoonotic diseases, and this argument is used to ...
Climate Action Farming: What farmers need to do to adapt as our planet heats up—and why organic and ‘regenerative agriculture’ cannot meet the challenge
There are a number of practices that farmers could use to manage their land in ways that would optimally remove ...
Wine story: From Stone Age seed domestication to new age fermentation, here is the evolutionary history of wine
Over the millennia, humans have radically transformed viticulture from a happy accident to a scientifically precise art form and global ...
Viewpoint: Food shortage crisis — There are two ways to address the food shortage crisis: Farm more land or increase yield. Let’s compare their sustainability impacts
As the planet’s population continues its relentless march towards 10 billion, more food is going to need to be produced ...
Do agri-businesses ‘control’ agriculture? The emerging gene-editing revolution in Latin America is challenging that belief
Small actions can create such huge differences. We see that ‘butterfly effect’ playing out in Latin America. where the development ...
Viewpoint: Misleading claims on Mom’s Organic Market grocery bags deceive shoppers about bee health, pesticide dangers and neonicotinoids
I don’t deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don’t seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes ...
Viewpoint: How biotechnology can make geopolitical food security upheavals less likely — Ukrainian War prompts global rethink about Europe’s reliance on ‘obsolete technologies’
Celebrated in symphonies, and storied in literature and cinema, the steppes of central Asia have long played a key role in the history ...
Viewpoint: Rightwing The Epoch Times circulates anti-GMO hysteria and disinformation usually found on the ‘natural’ left
We frequently receive requests to comment on specific news stories. These are usually examples of journalists or pundits commenting on ...
From the Environmental Working Group to the Pesticide Action Network, food activists claim we face killer risks from chemicals. Here’s why scientists don’t agree
E coli in ready-to-eat salads? Salmonella in seafood? Spoiled ground beef? Listeria in vegetables? Pesticide traces in… everything? Each year ...
Podcast: Gene editing and public acceptance — Agricultural economist Brandon McFadden on regulatory differences in agriculture and medicine for using CRISPR
Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas, TALEN or other tools allows scientists to make directed and precise changes in DNA. The technologies ...
Viewpoint: Sustainability challenges require us to rethink the role of meat in our world — How we raise livestock and process chicken and beef
Meat is a touchy topic. At the beginning of 2021, right-wing media jumped on a rumor that President Joe Biden ...
Viewpoint: ‘Arrogance of affluence and ignorance of ideologues’: EU’s failing agroecology Farm-to-Fork strategy — and what can be done to ensure sustainable farming and food
The world is teetering on the brink of multiple food security crises which will lead to famines, political and social ...
Is conventional ‘industrialized’, technology-driven farming ‘destroying biodiversity’ as critics claim — or saving it?
Well over 90% of food, produce and grains in the United States is grown on conventional farms. Critics stigmatize this ...
Consumer paradox: As media turn less negative on genetically modified crops, Canadian consumers remain ambivalent about innovative food products
Canadians have high trust in Canada’s food safety system, but not new food products Gauging consumer attitudes to genetically modified ...
What are the Challenges Facing Modern Farming Around the World?
Mary Boote, Chief Executive Officer of the GlobalFarmer Network | June 12, 2018Highlights: Agricultural biotech solutions are being denied to ...
GLP Podcast: Vitamin-D boosted CRISPR tomatoes; Don’t fear monkeypox; Environmentalism is anti-technology
Consumers in the UK may soon have access to a gene-edited tomato that boosts their vitamin D levels. Monkeypox is ...
Viewpoint: Should you choose plant-based chicken over the real thing to protect the planet and your health? Here are the facts
We’ve all seen and probably tried the Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat beef burgers. Plant-based options are popping up in almost every fast-food ...
Viewpoint: Toxic fruits and vegetables? Inspired by Environmental Working Group’s chemical scare fundraising gimmick in the US, Pesticide Action Network brings disinformation to Europe
Would you feed fruits and vegetables to your family after reading these headlines? Many European consumers may not, and they’d ...
Viewpoint: Popular Science is the latest ‘mainstream’ news source to fall into the anti-glyphosate disinformation rabbit-hole
“This Roundup ingredient might cause cancer—but the EPA won’t ban it,” Popular Science told its readers in a terribly misleading January ...
How the Green Party-Led Anti-Biotechnology Movement Captured German Policy and Why it Endangers Germany’s Future Innovation in Gene Editing
Wolfgang Nellen, Emeritus Professor of Genetics, University of Kassel | June 27, 2018Highlights:Green Party’s opposition to biotechnology innovation began with its ...
Viewpoint: Here is why Canada is deregulating gene edited foods — and why consumers will benefit
The importance of, and reliance upon, evidence-based regulations was reaffirmed [recently] in Canada! It was very welcomed news when Health ...
Part II: Seeds of Reaction — How anti-GMO ‘progressivism’ morphed into a technophobic science rejectionist movement
Part One of this essay on the evolution of anti-GMO activism ended with an introduction to the book The Rhetoric ...
