Sustainability/Climate Change
Food production needs are expected to roughly double over the next 35 years as the world population grows and people in under developed countries become more affluent and demand more calories. Healthy ecosystems are vital to the survival of all organisms. How can we grow crops without harming the environment? How can we balance technology and global food security? What is the right balance of organic and conventional farming? What role can genetics and biotechnology play without compromising the needs of tomorrow?
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
India’s first approval of GMO food—mustard—could open door to over 100 GE food products
After many ifs and buts, the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard seems to have reached a decisive phase ...
Pink GM pineapple with high levels of antioxidants unlikely to boost human health
[Editor's note: Layla Katiraee is a scientist with a PhD in Molecular Genetics.] A couple of months ago, I saw ...
UK approves field trial of GM potatoes resistant to blight and nematode
In the United Kingdom, farming minister George Eustice (DEFRA) has approved a four-year trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes at ...
Infographic: 6 ‘snake oil salesmen’ who profit from food fears
Several activists opposed to genetic engineering run small media empires, including websites, TV and radio programs. Scientists say they are ...
10 years after Colony Collapse Disorder scare, what have we learned about the plight of bees?
Managed honey bees are afflicted by a range of pests, viruses and predators--the worst being the Varroa mite--that have been ...
UK’s Labour Party ‘pledges to ban’ neonicotinoid insecticides if it takes power
Neonicotinoid seed treatments will be banned if Labour forms the next government, according to a leaked draft of the party’s ...
‘Organic civil war’: Do advocates care about promoting food security and sustainability?
Last June [2016] Stephanie Strom, reporting for the New York Times, broke the story about how Whole Foods had upset ...
From kale to cows: Modern supermarket full of foods genetically modified by humans
Here are just a few of the modern supermarket offerings that we have been genetically modifying for centuries: Cow and ...
‘Unstoppable’: How corn took over America’s farmland
Farmers who had long rotated plantings among a diverse group of grains are increasingly turning to a single one. Corn ...
European Commission: Scientists find neonicotinoids don’t harm bees, restrictions hurt farmers—but support permanent ban
The EU's Joint Research Center found that the temporary ban on neonics did not help bees and hurt farmers' ability ...
Talking Biotech: How Uruguay—major producer of GMO soy and corn—regulates GE crops
Uruguay biosecurity expert Alejandra Ferenczi: 'Regulate the uniqueness of the final food product and not genetic engineering' ...
Podcast: Horticulturalist Kevin Folta exposes US Right to Know’s smear campaign against biotech scientists
The development of GMOs have helped farmers feed more people and create sustainable methods in modern agriculture. But that fact ...
What does USDA organic label really mean? WaPo investigation finds imported corn and soy often mislabelled
A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late [2016] from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, ...
India expected to approve 3 indigenously developed varieties of insect-resistant GMO Bt cotton
The government is expected to soon allow commercial release of three genetically modified (Bt) and indigenously developed varieties of cotton ...
What role can crop biotechnology play in feeding Nigeria’s growing population?
[Editor's note: Modesta Nnedinso Abugu is program assistant for the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology-Nigeria Chapter and Fellow of Cornell University’s ...
Federal judge rules EPA did not consider potential impact of neonicotinoids on insects besides bees
A Minnesota beekeeper has won a round against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a protracted lawsuit over a ...
Coming age of CRISPR gene editing: What in heck is the ‘Pink Chicken Project’?
A new website called "the Pink Chicken Project" offers up an intriguing nugget of an idea: what if we turned ...
GMO disease fighters: Zika-destroying GM mosquitoes may soon be joined by GM moths to quash cabbage and kale pest
A half-inch-long moth that devours kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts may not inspire the same fear as a Zika-carrying mosquito, but ...
Varroa mites—‘leading culprit’ of honey bee losses—hitchhike to nearby hives to spread disease
As the managed honey bee industry continues to grapple with significant annual colony losses, the Varroa destructor mite is emerging ...
If biofortified crops are goal, both genetic engineering and conventional breeding necessary
[Dr Swati Puranik, of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University in the UK] and her ...
Nigeria’s environment minister: We must ensure country does not become ‘dumping ground for GM foods’
The Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril has tasked regulatory agencies in the country to ensure that Nigeria ...
‘Naturalistic fallacy’: Explaining anti-GMO—anti-vaccine ideological and financial links
Both the anti-GMO movement and the anti-vaccine movement are predicated on the myth that "natural" is better. They also share ...
New generation GMO soybeans: How genetic tweaking might offset detrimental impact of rising temperatures
Published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, this study found the modified crop yielded more when subjected to both increased ...
CRISPR race: Gene editing’s lower costs, regulations open door to more competition, improved crops
Monsanto ... is investing in gene editing in an effort to keep an edge over rival suppliers of high-tech crop seeds ...
Do real farmers think of Monsanto as ‘the oppressor’?
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, known on social media as the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer ...
How a permanent ban on neonicotinoid insecticides would impact UK farmers
The world’s most widely used insecticides could be banned for use on all field crops [in 2017], if proposals are ...
Video: Obama on GMOs — ‘Humanity has always engaged in genetic modifications’
The former president said that, like climate change, science drives his views on biotechnology. He advocated for prudent legislation and ...
