Food & Agriculture 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
A behind the scenes look at pesticide use in organic orchards, vineyards and fresh produce
This is part three of a four-part series attempting to separate fact from fiction regarding pesticide use on organic farms ...
4 things that led to the myth that organic farmers use more pesticides than conventional farmers
This is part two of a four-part series attempting to separate fact from fiction regarding pesticide use on organic farms ...
Do organic farmers really use more pesticides than conventional farmers? Not even close.
This is part one of a four-part series attempting to separate fact from fiction regarding pesticide use on organic farms ...
‘The Farm Project’: Actress Zooey Deschanel’s advice on organic food, pesticides is short on science
The actress Zooey Deschanel cites pesticide use in advising Facebook users to avoid certain non-organic produce. Is that scientifically sound ...
Viewpoint: Here’s what’s wrong with study suggesting glyphosate damages our gut health
Can glyphosate impact gut health? The Guardian reports on a team of scientists who claim to have demonstrated that it ...
Viewpoint: How the Environmental Working Group and ‘Big Organic’ manipulate pesticide data to scare people
Consumers have a legitimate desire for transparency when it comes to their food - particularly when it comes to the ...
USDA’s hands-off approach to gene-edited crops could revolutionize research and development
The US Department of Agriculture’s recent decision to stay out of the business of regulating gene-edited crops could be a ...
Gene Drive Files ‘cabal’—and biotech rejectionist efforts to derail research on technology with potential to fight crop pests
The email came from Roylan Saah, coordinator of Genetic Biocontrol of Invasive Rodents at Island Conservation, a non-profit dedicated to ...
‘Substantial equivalence’: Are GMOs as safe as other conventional and organic foods?
GMO critics claim that US regulations rely too much on the concept of “substantial equivalence” when evaluating if food is ...
Viewpoint: European organic industry’s obsession with ‘natural’ threatens CRISPR innovations and hurts the environment
What is nature? What is natural? Philosophers have been arguing about this since antiquity. Supporters of organic farming seem to ...
Ugandan farmers struggling with cassava viruses await GMO solution
Cassava is a major staple food for millions of people in the tropical regions of the world. In Uganda it ...
Viewpoint: North American scientists, IARC officials conspired to misrepresent glyphosate health risks
On March 20, 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that it had classified glyphosate, the active substance ...
Viewpoint: Why organic farming activists oppose New Breeding Techniques (NBTs)
There was a brief moment in 2015 where organic farming researchers were having an open discussion on adopting certain innovative ...
How scientists use meta-analysis to try to make sense of contradictory findings on neonicotinoids and bees
The EU has announced a near-total ban on three insecticides that we now know are harmful to bees and other pollinators. And yet for ...
Agricultural biotechnologies that improved safety, yields, food security in developing nations
This is the third in a three-part series making the case that the development of the biotech traits for insect ...
Delving into the GMO traits that cut back pesticide impacts globally
This is the second in a three-part series making the case that the development of the biotech traits for insect ...
Let’s recognize Roundup Ready and Bt crops as major contributions to sustainable farming
This is the first in a three-part series making the case that the development of biotech traits for insect resistance ...
Ugandan legislator on why his nation needs to ‘wake up’ on GMOs
Robert Kafeero Sekitoleko is an engineer, legislator and chairperson of the Sectoral Committee on Science and Technology in Uganda’s Parliament ...
Viewpoint: Examining the science denial behind IFOAM—Organics International
The true-believers in organic agriculture, such as the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM—Organics International), are as deluded as ...
Managed well, cattle feedlots can be the environmental and ethical smart choice
Although grass-fed is touted as the environmentally and ethically best choice for beef eaters, feedlots often outperform on both fronts ...
Public health breakthrough: US and Indian scientists work together on genetic solutions to food toxins
Genetically engineered peanuts that are immune to aflatoxin contamination, which is associated with an increased risk of liver cancer, would ...
Nobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts: Uganda will remain trapped by food poverty if its leaders bow to anti-biotech activists
One of the main sources of nutrition for poor Ugandans, bananas, is on the verge of being wiped out by ...
Genetically engineered AquaBounty salmon ready for US market, but caught in Congressional ‘sausage grinder’
“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” The true version of ...
Can biotechnology defuse the looming ‘bananapocalypse’?
Scientists have developed GMO bananas resistant to a destructive disease sweeping across the globe. But they may never reach the ...
Frankenfoods? A ‘terrible word’ that could describe more foods than you might realize
What's a Frankenfood? If science matters, it's not food with ingredients whose genes have been precision modified ...
Viewpoint: GMO critic Vandana Shiva’s anti-modernity crusade threatens world’s poor
The recently-published “Social Justice Warrior Handbook,” which satirizes people who promote liberal, multicultural, anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, politically correct views, could have ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list highlights ‘meaningless distinctions’ between organic and conventional foods
On April 10, the Environmental Working Group – an NGO funded by big organic marketers – released its annual “Dirty Dozen List” ...
