Newsletter GLP Food & Ag
Viewpoint: Anti-technology activists claim coronavirus outbreaks could be exacerbated by intensive farming. Here’s why they are dead wrong
It is often asserted that intensive livestock systems increase the risk of zoonotic diseases, and this argument is used to ...
Climate Action Farming: What farmers need to do to adapt as our planet heats up—and why organic and ‘regenerative agriculture’ cannot meet the challenge
There are a number of practices that farmers could use to manage their land in ways that would optimally remove ...
Wine story: From Stone Age seed domestication to new age fermentation, here is the evolutionary history of wine
Over the millennia, humans have radically transformed viticulture from a happy accident to a scientifically precise art form and global ...
Viewpoint: Food shortage crisis — There are two ways to address the food shortage crisis: Farm more land or increase yield. Let’s compare their sustainability impacts
As the planet’s population continues its relentless march towards 10 billion, more food is going to need to be produced ...
Do agri-businesses ‘control’ agriculture? The emerging gene-editing revolution in Latin America is challenging that belief
Small actions can create such huge differences. We see that ‘butterfly effect’ playing out in Latin America. where the development ...
Viewpoint: The disinformation-promoting Non-GMO Project takes on synthetic biology on behalf of the consumer. Are they really on your side?
The Non-GMO Project is a pay-for-certification scheme masquerading as a 501(c)3 organization. It allows food manufacturers to decorate their packages ...
Viewpoint: Misleading claims on Mom’s Organic Market grocery bags deceive shoppers about bee health, pesticide dangers and neonicotinoids
I don’t deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don’t seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes ...
Viewpoint: How biotechnology can make geopolitical food security upheavals less likely — Ukrainian War prompts global rethink about Europe’s reliance on ‘obsolete technologies’
Celebrated in symphonies, and storied in literature and cinema, the steppes of central Asia have long played a key role in the history ...
Viewpoint: Rightwing The Epoch Times circulates anti-GMO hysteria and disinformation usually found on the ‘natural’ left
We frequently receive requests to comment on specific news stories. These are usually examples of journalists or pundits commenting on ...
From the Environmental Working Group to the Pesticide Action Network, food activists claim we face killer risks from chemicals. Here’s why scientists don’t agree
E coli in ready-to-eat salads? Salmonella in seafood? Spoiled ground beef? Listeria in vegetables? Pesticide traces in… everything? Each year ...
Podcast: Gene editing and public acceptance — Agricultural economist Brandon McFadden on regulatory differences in agriculture and medicine for using CRISPR
Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas, TALEN or other tools allows scientists to make directed and precise changes in DNA. The technologies ...
Viewpoint: Sustainability challenges require us to rethink the role of meat in our world — How we raise livestock and process chicken and beef
Meat is a touchy topic. At the beginning of 2021, right-wing media jumped on a rumor that President Joe Biden ...
Viewpoint: ‘Arrogance of affluence and ignorance of ideologues’: EU’s failing agroecology Farm-to-Fork strategy — and what can be done to ensure sustainable farming and food
The world is teetering on the brink of multiple food security crises which will lead to famines, political and social ...
Is conventional ‘industrialized’, technology-driven farming ‘destroying biodiversity’ as critics claim — or saving it?
Well over 90% of food, produce and grains in the United States is grown on conventional farms. Critics stigmatize this ...
Consumer paradox: As media turn less negative on genetically modified crops, Canadian consumers remain ambivalent about innovative food products
Canadians have high trust in Canada’s food safety system, but not new food products Gauging consumer attitudes to genetically modified ...
What are the Challenges Facing Modern Farming Around the World?
Mary Boote, Chief Executive Officer of the GlobalFarmer Network | June 12, 2018Highlights: Agricultural biotech solutions are being denied to ...
GLP Podcast: Vitamin-D boosted CRISPR tomatoes; Don’t fear monkeypox; Environmentalism is anti-technology
Consumers in the UK may soon have access to a gene-edited tomato that boosts their vitamin D levels. Monkeypox is ...
Viewpoint: Should you choose plant-based chicken over the real thing to protect the planet and your health? Here are the facts
We’ve all seen and probably tried the Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat beef burgers. Plant-based options are popping up in almost every fast-food ...
Viewpoint: Toxic fruits and vegetables? Inspired by Environmental Working Group’s chemical scare fundraising gimmick in the US, Pesticide Action Network brings disinformation to Europe
Would you feed fruits and vegetables to your family after reading these headlines? Many European consumers may not, and they’d ...
Viewpoint: Popular Science is the latest ‘mainstream’ news source to fall into the anti-glyphosate disinformation rabbit-hole
“This Roundup ingredient might cause cancer—but the EPA won’t ban it,” Popular Science told its readers in a terribly misleading January ...
How the Green Party-Led Anti-Biotechnology Movement Captured German Policy and Why it Endangers Germany’s Future Innovation in Gene Editing
Wolfgang Nellen, Emeritus Professor of Genetics, University of Kassel | June 27, 2018Highlights:Green Party’s opposition to biotechnology innovation began with its ...
Part II: Seeds of Reaction — How anti-GMO ‘progressivism’ morphed into a technophobic science rejectionist movement
Part One of this essay on the evolution of anti-GMO activism ended with an introduction to the book The Rhetoric ...
Part 1: Viewpoint — Anti-GMO activists conjure up new scare messages as their influence wanes
It's been ten years of downhill sledding for advocacy groups and activists campaigning to throttle the burgeoning biotechnology revolution transforming ...
Science Media Centre: Independent scientists react to Britain’s sudden embrace of CRISPR and agricultural biotechnology
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill, removing barriers to research into new gene editing technology, will be introduced in Parliament ...
Protecting wild salmon and other aquatic species: Success of AquaAdvantage salmon shows sustainable aquaculture will lean heavily on advanced breeding and biotechnology
Wild salmon are in trouble worldwide. Many Pacific and Atlantic populations have disappeared or declined to record lows. But as we and a group of ...
From dairy to meat to seafood, the future of sustainable food is here. Thank you synthetic biology!
The very definition of what food is undergoing a revolution. It will be challenged by beefless beef, porkless pork, fishless fish, ...
New Zealand Farmer on the GMO Moratorium’s Impact on Sustainable Food and Agriculture, and Hopes CRISPR Crops Won’t Face the Same Fate
Craige Mackenzie, Farmer in Methven, New Zealand | June 26, 2018Highlights:New Zealand’s island status has intensified its commitment to sustainable farming‘Wait-and-see’ ...
