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
Conspiracy promoter Mike ‘Health Ranger’ Adams built online disinformation Natural News online empire that subverts science, report finds
Alternative health guru and conspiracy theorist Mike Adams, founder of the popular website Natural News, has been identified as the ...
How needless precaution kept a GMO ‘superfood’ off the market: Q&A with Golden Rice author Ed Regis
Seeing what has happened to Golden Rice over the course of 20 years, nothing would surprise me going forward ...
Viewpoint: We’ve got 10 years to prevent ‘irreversible’ climate change damage. Here’s how CRISPR can help
Ten years – that is the timeline scientists have given us to either address climate change or suffer irreversible damages ...
Podcast: Some vaccine skeptics aren’t science deniers; Animal-free ice cream; Plant burgers are ‘meat’?
If you reject vaccines, you're a science denier! Not necessarily. Some people may have legitimate reasons to be skeptical. Scientists ...
Viewpoint: Anti-Monsanto biopic ‘Percy’ tells misleading tale about GMOs and seed patents
As any experienced moviegoer knows, "This film is based on a true story" is more of a disclaimer than a ...
Don’t eat it if you can’t pronounce it? Avoiding ‘scary-sounding ingredients’ won’t make you healthier
"If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it!” We are told that steering clear of scary-sounding ingredients is a simple, ...
‘Hero of progress’: How agronomist Norman Borlaug almost banished famine from Asia
Norman Borlaug’s work undeniably changed the world for the better ...
COVID halts global GM crop approvals, hitting poor farmers in developing countries hardest
The demand rising from COVID-19 has ramped up vaccines using various genetic modification technologies, but when it comes to agriculture, ...
Podcast: Anti-GMO ‘documentaries’; Cancel culture v Darwin? Biotech chestnut trees
So-called 'cancel culture' has already taken down a handful of prominent scientists and philosophers, living and deceased. One evolutionary biologist ...
Viewpoint: Swayed by anti-GMO groups, biotech pioneer Mexico lurches toward GM crop ban
“There is currently enough food in the world to feed 10 billion people,” writes the anti-GMO environmental group Green America ...
Gene-edited crops and animals: Best-kept secrets in the fight against climate change
Advances in gene editing over the past decade have given scientists new tools to tailor the biochemistry of nearly any ...
Scare talk debunked: GMOs, pesticides and antibiotics don’t make conventional food unsafe
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently cautioned Americans not to fear their food. That’s an amazing thing for any public official ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s pro-organic Farm to Fork policy will ‘cripple’ an already inefficient agriculture system
The EU’s “Farm to fork (F2F) strategy” announced in May, is “the heart of the “Green Deal,” a kind of ...
Podcast: Regulate all food chemicals? Gin and tonics going extinct; GMO pineapple is here!
There are thousands upon thousands of chemicals in food. Should we regulate them all, could we even do it? Gin ...
‘Rethinking Monsanto’: Ex-GMO skeptic explains what he got wrong about Big Ag and the pitfalls of plant breeding
Beginning in 2010, I embarked on a slow-motion conversion from GMO skeptic to advocate as I began developing a more ...
What I got wrong: GMO skeptic turned crop biotech advocate explains his ‘slow-motion conversion’
A recent open-heart surgery put my mind, as it might, on themes relating to mortality. Which got me thinking about ...
GM insect-resistant Bt cotton boosted India’s crop yields? Activist study says no, but crop biotech experts say yes
Was the introduction of transgenic (GMO) cotton seeds to India in 2002 the beginning of the renaissance of the country's ...
Podcast: Facebook vs junk science; ‘Brain-boosting’ supplements; Whole grains really healthy?
Alternative health champion Mike Adams has been banned from every social media platform but continues to spread his anti-GMO and ...
Viewpoint: Greenpeace-funded study backfires, undermining case to treat gene-edited crops as GMOs
The anti-GMO movement dominated the public discourse about crop biotechnology for decades. Led by committed activists who knew how to ...
Pesticide evolution: Can natural chemicals help battle insects, weeds and disease without harming the planet?
A new collaboration between the two R&D pioneers aims to accelerate the discovery of breakthrough crop protection technologies. If you ...
Podcast: GM crops don’t change your DNA; Monsanto ‘owns’ global food supply? South American anti-biotech invasion
Are GM crops unnatural? Can they change your DNA? And does 'Big Ag' own the global food supply? The answer ...
Colombian anti-biotech groups losing on two fronts? Push for GMO ban slows, while government green lights first gene-edited crop
Editor's note: The author of this story has informed the GLP that new information has come to light, and asked ...
Viewpoint: Animals vs plants? Stop fighting about where your protein comes from and eat a balanced diet
With a feeling of uncertainty infiltrating our lives lately, many of us are looking for concrete information to help us ...
‘Regenerative’ agriculture: Organic farming buzz word, or the path to sustainable food production?
The goal should be sustainability, not trying to advance an ideology ...
Podcast: Monsanto v Percy Schmeiser; Experts spread misinformation, too; Fasting a fad diet?
Just-released courtroom drama 'Percy' tells the David vs. Goliath story of a Canadian farmer's battle against Monsanto. Did the film ...
Viewpoint: International anti-GMO groups wage PR war to get gene-edited crops out of Latin America
Imagine for a moment that you're a farmer. Genetically modified crops that could help you protect your yields from voracious ...
Viewpoint: There’s no such thing as a ‘GMO,’ and the history of potatoes illustrates why the term is ‘nonsensical’
The expression “genetically modified organisms” (“GMOs”) is not only void of scientific value, but has negative effects on agricultural progress ...
