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
The ‘Mind Diet’: How our diet shapes cognitive health and dementia
There’s long been evidence that what we eat can affect our risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline as we age ...
Viewpoint: ‘Travesty of science’: Latest ‘global glyphosate study’ is a scientific mess issued by the ethically-compromised Ramazzini Institute
In June, the Ramazzini Institute published the results of its long-heralded Global Glyphosate Study via an article in a Ramazzini-managed ...
GLP spaces on X: Climate change and meat. Separating fact from hype
Red meat is often scapegoated as a major villain in the popular story about our global efforts to prevent a ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists’ doomsday pessimism undermines agricultural biotechnology
We live in a precautionary era in which technological breakthroughs poised to dominate the coming decades—from artificial intelligence and nanotechnology ...
10 years ago, the hazard agency IARC called glyphosate a ‘likely carcinogen’. It weaponized chemophobia, corrupted environmental groups and ignited a tort bonanza
Ten years ago this week, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the full Monograph 112, that included a ...
Africa’s quiet biotech revolution: Gene editing emerges from Europe’s anti-GMO shadow
For decades, European regulations have dominated the global conversation on agricultural biotechnology in many regions of the globe. From field ...
Viewpoint: California’s science-challenged Proposition 65 toxic chemical regulation are at center of ‘tort shakedown’ racket
Not to0 many years ago, my wife and I once elebrated our anniversary in South Lake Tahoe, situated on the ...
Why cutting out synthetic pesticides will reduce food production and won’t help the environment
Following the launch earlier this year of the UK Pesticides National Action Plan, with a strong focus on reducing the ...
Viewpoint: MAHA and RFK, Jr. have it backward: Celebrating elimination of safe chemicals while gutting healthcare and food assistance programs
The White House and HHS are congratulating themselves for “major victories for American health.” Their actions are doing the opposite ...
With hopes fading about finding signs of life on the exoplanet K2-18b, scientists refocus on exploring the Moon and Mars, with providing food the largest challenge
If we are serious about settling on other planets, we must grow food efficiently outside the safe environment of Earth ...
Viewpoint: The Chemical Panic Industry — to the delight of tort lawyers, activist researchers invent the myth of the ‘exposome’
There is a chemical in my soup. There’s a microplastic that might be harmful. There are particles in the air ...
6% of global carbon emissions are linked to beef. Here’s how American exports can sharply reduce that
Trump’s global trade shake-up has prompted nearly every nation around the globe to reexamine their own trade policies, asking what ...
How farming spread globally in prehistoric times to supplant hunting and gathering
If you’ve ever wondered how farming spread far and wide, our research on past human societies offers one explanation: contact ...
Viewpoint: England’s head start in pioneering crop gene editing in Europe in danger
News that global agribusiness Syngenta is to cut its UK-based wheat breeding activities after 35 years, focusing activity on the ...
Fighting climate change with gene editing: Can we slash cows’ methane production?
Preventing ruminant methane from being produced in the first place seems a sensible way to limit its damaging effects ...
Viewpoint: RFK.Jr’s embrace of fear-mongering about food dyes mimics Europe’s precautionary regulations
Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1 may soon be history. Not because science says they're dangerous, but because the ...
Viewpoint: Activist hypocrisy — It makes no sense to use genetic engineering to treat disease but limit it to grow food sustainably
As a biomedical scientist working in cancer and infectious disease immunology, I’ve spent decades working with genetic tools and genetic ...
GLP Spaces on X: Misinfo from the mainstream. Hypocritical pediatricians blast RFK Jr.’s anti-vaxx stance while flouting consensus on GMOs
You can't be a stalwart defender of scientific consensus, expertise and evidence-based medicine while taking contrarian positions on critical public ...
Stinky plants: The evolutionary explanation
Not all flowers emit odors that are enticing to humans. Three types of flowering plants – Asarum simile, Eurya japonica, and Symplocarpus ...
GLP podcast: Politics over science. Why food safety debates are driven by ideology
America's ferocious battles over food safety and nutrition are often driven by politics and other ideological considerations rather than cold, ...
Viewpoint: While plaintiff attorneys link ultra-processed foods to rising obesity levels, the science remains unconvincing
Opinions regarding “safe” and unsafe foods vacillate more than hem-length fashion. While we disregard emerging data, fail to conduct sound ...
GLP spaces on X: The ‘Dirty Dozen,’ dissected
Each year the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) "Dirty Dozen" list ranks fruits and vegetables with the supposedly highest pesticide residues, ...
Is the American Academy of Pediatrics a stalwart defender of science and vaccines or a biotechnology science rejectionist? Sadly, it’s both
In a rare but pointed rebuke of federal health policy, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) filed a federal lawsuit ...
Would widespread adoption of organic farming practices be a good idea from a climate change perspective?
Agriculture plays a complex role when it comes to climate change. Farming does contribute a significant share of certain greenhouse ...
The science of seed oils: Healthy or harmful?
The Dirt Seed oils have become the most recent food to avoid. Despite being a staple in every diet and ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen is out. It’s a ‘heaping pile of disinformation’
It’s springtime in the US, which means the Environmental Working Group (EWG) releases their annual Dirty Dozen list, the bane ...
RFK, Jr. is targeting chemical food additives. What does science tell us?
In a video posted to YouTube [last] September, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at U.S. health agencies that he said have ...
