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: Tampering down hysteria on ultra-processed foods
The term ultra-processed food (UPF) has become so common — and so charged — that many people feel a sense ...
Viewpoint: Organic proponents are wellness vaccine-skeptic grifters but with better branding
The organic industry is a multi-billion dollar cash cow (get it—I love a good pun) that is based on zero ...
Glyphosate’s climate dividend: Weedkiller reduces greenhouse pollution equal to taking 21.8 million cars off the road each year
This paper estimates the annual global carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from the manufacture, distribution and farm level use of ...
Europe pursues three different regulatory paths in efforts to open the gates to agricultural gene editing
The landscape of agricultural innovation in Europe is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades. New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)—including highly ...
Organic food consumer snapshot: Okay benefits but only if cost premium is under 5%
Understanding what truly drives consumers to choose organic or locally produced foods requires looking beyond assumptions and into real behavior ...
Viewpoint: U.S. and Europe lagging behind China’s embrace of crop gene editing
Ships, chips, and missiles dominate discussions about defense. But don’t forget food. Secure supplies are key to supply-chain sovereignty — ...
Yummy goldenberries with their pineapple-mango taste could transform via gene editing into a mass grocery market star
Goldenberries taste like a cross between pineapple and mango, pack the nutritional punch of a superfood, and are increasingly popular ...
Utopian fantasy or realistic tools? Deploying synthetic biology to jump crop yields sustainably
As the climate crisis accelerates, there’s a desperate need to rapidly reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, both by ...
Activist claims that U.S. crop yields are in decline are mostly propaganda
For years, climate activists have pointed to the threat of declining crop yields as a reason to pass the most ...
Beautiful and delicious mutants on your plate: The misunderstood world of crop improvement
When most of us hear the word mutation, the images that come to mind are not positive. We think of ...
Viewpoint: TB served in a glass—The legislative rush to legitimize raw milk
Once, pasteurization helped conquer “The White Plague”, saving millions of lives from TB and other diseases. Now, legislators across the ...
From creating healthy menus to eliminating food waste, AI is transforming the link between food and health
Across the food system, AI is being harnessed for good—helping consumers make smarter nutritional choices, waste less food, and even ...
Viewpoint: The U.S. Congress needs to dramatically and quickly overhaul its regulation of agricultural biotechnology
Since the 1986 release of the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology almost 40 years ago, there have been two ...
Viewpoint: Misrepresentation by journalists and activists of the science of chemicals, processed food, and fossil fuels is corroding America’s future
In 50 years from now, our great-grandchildren will study how affluent societies in the 2020s willfully threw out advanced technologies ...
Our ancestors balanced eating and fasting as a survival mechanism. It still has benefits today
Ever worried that skipping breakfast might leave you foggy at work? Or that intermittent fasting would make you irritable, distracted ...
GLP podcast: Cookies addictive like heroin? Toxicologist dismantles ‘food addiction’
Enjoying delicious food is a fundamental part of the human experience. Few of us would deny the enjoyment we get ...
How tasty does dinner look? How healthy? Our brains work this out faster than conscious thought
Imagine you’re at the grocery store, standing before a selection of snacks. Seemingly without thinking, you skip over the rice ...
Power, culture, and identity: How did milk get caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars
Milk is one of the most familiar things in the world – comforting, wholesome, ordinary. But beneath this common perception ...
Viewpoint—Toxic Narratives: The lucrative environmentalist–tort lawyer-media disinformation network driving drug and chemical scares
Is aspartame, used in thousands of products, from Diet Coke to Trident Gum to Log Cabin Sugar-Free Syrup, potentially cancer-causing? ...
Can you really become addicted to food?
People often joke that their favorite snack is “like crack” or call themselves “chocoholics” in jest. But can someone really ...
The emerging state-by-state patchwork of food additive bans raises concerns among food regulatory scientists
A coalition of major food companies and industry associations launched Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), aimed at stopping the growing trend ...
Viewpoint: Newly-formed non-profits are the ‘dark money’ foundation of the activist environmental movement
Time was that non-profits were funded by their membership dues or individual donations, loose change drums at airports and clipboard ...
California takes on the thorny challenge to define what constitutes a nutritious lunch for school children. How is it doing?
California has once again stepped to the front of the regulatory line—this time in the school cafeteria. While Washington dithers ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s precautionary principle guiding science regulations is broken. Here’s what needs to be done
Precaution is common sense. We don’t run blindly into a busy street or touch a hot flame. When a toddler ...
Viewpoint: Environmentalists claim farmers can forego chemicals and genetically engineered crops and grow bumper crops with less environmental impact. If only farming was that easy
At the end of the 20th century, the United Nations (UN) launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were a list of ...
Why scare stories about crop chemicals outlive the science
For years, glyphosate has been the world’s most litigated molecule. The herbicide, first brought to market in 1974 under the ...
Viewpoint: Frost season is nearing in Florida’s citrus-growing region. Here’s how backward science at the EPA has closed down a protective solution
“That morning I squeezed every orange and it felt like a wet sponge – I knew I lost the whole ...
