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: Natural ≠ better—RFK, Jr.’s recommended ban on artificial dyes provides the ‘illusion of meaningful action’ but no health benefits
Health Secretary RFK Jr. recently announced that eight artificial food dyes will be eliminated from the US food supply by ...
Organic yields significantly lag conventional farming output. That gap will increase as gene editing accelerates in the U.S.
A lack of sufficient nutrient application and the limited ability to control weeds, insects, and plant diseases, results in organic ...
Can Africa’s indigenous ‘orphan crops’ play a meaningful role in improving the continent’s food security?
In 2021, the small village of Kanaani in eastern Kenya faced a devastating drought. For months, rain was scarce, leaving ...
Video: John Stossel and GLP’s Jon Entine on the faux bee-apocalypse—How environmental groups and the media manufacture chemical scares
Have you heard? The honey bees are dying! At least, that’s what the media and big money- hungry environmental groups ...
Seeds of influence: As U.S. and other Western countries hesitate to back biotech in Africa, China is redefining global standards around agricultural innovation
In the heart of Mozambique’s Gaza Province, rice fields stretch across the landscape, a testament to a quiet but powerful ...
On chronic disease, the Make America Healthy Commission misfires, but there are solutions: Rethinking fruits and vegetables
If there is a positive aspect of the Make American Healthy Again movement it is that it brings to the ...
RFK, Jr.’s MAHA Health Commission attacks vaccines, ultra-processed food for chronic health problems, tiptoes around criticizing crop chemicals
President Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission blamed factors including bad diets, chemical exposure and unnecessary medication for causing childhood ...
Viewpoint: Activist-critics of GMO crops claim falsely that biotechnology increases chemical use in farming
When the anti-GMO movement gets tired of chanting “Monsanto” like a magic spell, it grabs academic buzzwords to sound respectable ...
Viewpoint: Sustainable intensification—Debunking activist claims that high-yield agriculture leads to industrial monocultures
“Nature organisations have an uneasy relationship with modern agriculture. I think many of them would ideally like to free up ...
GLP spaces on X: Pesticides cause Parkinson’s? Another scandalous chemical claim misses the mark
Like so many other chemical scare stories, the claim that pesticides cause Parkinson’s disease (PD) has circulated online for years, ...
GM crops have enhanced environmental sustainability. As climate change roils farming, we’ll need even more biotech innovation
hen genetically modified (GM) crops were initially commercialized in the mid to late 1990s, many critics of the new technology ...
GLP podcast: It’s time to end the bipartisan war on science and medicine
Today's science disinformation ecosystem is sustained by a truly strange coalition of MAGA conservatives and liberal “wellness warriors” who have ...
Viewpoint: Indiscriminate cuts of agricultural climate programs undercut American productivity
As the Trump administration reviews federal programs, reduces the federal workforce, and prepares its 2026 budget proposal, cuts to climate-related ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. promises to ban comparatively safe dyes while the administration cuts programs that actually do protect public health
While the decision to remove artificial food dyes is typically something people across the political spectrum can get on board ...
How will U.S. tariffs impact the global agriculture industry?
The global market suffered a significant shock when U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the country would levy tariffs on ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s puzzling tariff strategy leaves farmers and ranchers anxious
President Trump called April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day,” citing a national emergency from the continuing trade imbalance between the United ...
Weedkiller wars: What happens if Bayer abandons the herbicide glyphosate?
Are glyphosate's days numbered? It's the world's most popular weedkiller by far. Since its introduction in the 1970s, glyphosate has ...
GLP podcast: Harmless snake venom, deadly water? The paradox of “toxic” chemicals with Dr. Kevin Folta
An untreated rattlesnake bite can kill you, yet drinking the same dose of venom is generally harmless, courtesy of the ...
England poised to approve the growing of gene edited crops in greenhouses and fields
Coming soon to England’s fields and glasshouses? Five times higher yielding strawberries with longer shelf life. Baby potatoes with bunched ...
GLP spaces on X: Sugar ‘addiction’—sound science or public health mythology?
Can't say no to sugary soda? Does that pint of ice cream demand you eat every last spoonful of its ...
What impact will the global trade war and RFK, Jr.’s MAHA agenda have on European farming, health and the U.S. science brain drain?
A global trade war jeopardizes agriculture worldwide. EU’s Farm to Fork plan also faces criticism. Jon Entine, editor-in-chief of the ...
Viewpoint: Concerned whether pesticides in the environment are safe? Listen to hands-on experts, not ideologues
Few environmental issues are more controversial than the potential danger of pesticides used to tame weeds and disease in crops ...
GLP podcast: ‘Industrial’ food is very nutritious; Porn might be harmful; Love of music is (partially) in your genes
This week on Facts and Fallacies, a farmer and plant geneticist refutes activist claims that modern agriculture drastically reduces nutrient ...
Viewpoint: U.K. poised to approve the Precision Breeding Act, reverse 25 years of science rejectionism
I served more than two decades ago as a Minister at the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) ...
Viewpoint: Organic or intensive agriculture? Brazil reframes the debate over the most promising future for farming
It's the year 2050, and the world's population has just passed 9 billion people. Economic growth has lifted hundreds of ...
‘We eat first with our eyes’: The line between appetite and indulgence is dangerously blurred
From an evolutionary point of view, finding nutritious food sources is essential. While today, our foraging consists of walking down ...
Viewpoint: Here’s how Environmental Working Group’s Carey Gillam, Le Monde and the Oak Foundation destroy reputations while promoting the tort industry
The small media and political monitoring company v-Fluence – also known for one of its products, Bonus Eventus – has been the target ...
