Newsletter GLP Food & Ag
Part I — Viewpoint: Why is trust in scientific research at an all time low?
The validity of much published scientific research is questionable – so how much trust should we place in it? ...
Anti-GMO Advocacy Funding Tracker: Vast network of donors and NGOs seed doubt about crop biotechnology
Who is David and who is Goliath when it comes to the GMO debate? Anti-biotech activists have long maintained that ...
Viewpoint: American Academy of Pediatrics fiasco — International Agency for the Research on Cancer is the cancer at the heart of the anti-glyphosate movement
In today’s world, due to the lopsided impact of the bullshit asymmetry principle, the internet is overflowing with misinformation. However, amidst ...
Here’s how we can genetically modify soil microbiomes to reduce use of synthetic fertilizers and improve yields
There has been a great deal of buzz in recent years about the importance of the human microbiome; much of it ...
Viewpoint: Are corporations and Western countries shackling African agriculture to suit their interests, as anti-GMO groups claim? Or are the activists doing the shackling?
Genetically enhanced (GE) crops, pesticides, and fertilizers have fueled an explosion in food production over the last six decades. Following ...
Viewpoint: Nobel laureates and 1,000 other scientists plead with European parliamentarians to ‘reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering’ over gene editing
As the European Parliament prepares for a key vote on gene editing regulations next week, an open letter signed by 35 Nobel ...
Are children and pregnant women risking their health by eating “GMO” foods? The American Association of Pediatrics controversially says ‘yes’. The real question: Is the AAP endangering the food vulnerable?
Are foods grown using genetically modified seeds hazardous to our health? Scientists, nutritionists and the global medical establishment say ‘no’. ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming and sustainable agriculture are often in conflict. Here’s why
hen it comes to denying science, California leads America, and sometimes the world. In early 2020, for example, when the ...
African scientists challenge activist claims that crop biotechnology revolution spreading across Africa threatens continent’s plant biodiversity
Do genetically modified (GM) pose a threat to the Africa’s plant biodiversity? ...
Viewpoint: Crop biotechnology and chemical pseudo-science exposed — Here’s how the ‘dark money’, tort-lawyer funded Heartland Study dupes journalists and co-ops universities
Until the 1990s, research was often low-budget, done in government agencies or industry funded. But as universities acquired expensive analytical ...
GLP podcast/video: ‘Paraquat Papers’ — Latest pesticide scandal wrongly links weedkiller to Parkinson’s
Thousands of pending lawsuits allege that the weedkiller paraquat causes Parkinson's Disease (PD), a connection its manufacturer tried to hide ...
Phony Whistleblower Gambit: This is how far some environmental activist groups are willing to go to corrupt science for money and ideological gain
Environmental activists rely on several go-to tactics when fomenting fear of pesticides. One of their favorite methods is recruiting fake ...
Viewpoint: Without measurable metrics, ‘regenerative agriculture’ is often little more than a data-less claim and a form of greenwashing. Here’s how to make it more science based and sustainable
In a previous column for SSA, just under a year ago, I highlighted concerns that the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a ...
Dissecting claims about Monsanto suing farmers for accidentally planting patented seeds
Much to the dismay of anti-GMO activists, courts around the world including SCOTUS have consistently upheld the rights of companies ...
Viewpoint: While environmentalists and journalists look the other way, anti-vax, pro-organic ‘dark money whore’ US Right to Know partners with organic food and tort lawyer hustlers to undermine science
In the introduction to this Firebreak series on how foundations fund activists, I noted there were a wide variety of foundations: ...
GLP podcast/video: Dangers of slanted science coverage; Media falsely claims glyphosate could harm pregnant women
Exaggerated media coverage distorts the public's understanding of critically important scientific issues, and the consequences can be dire. How do ...
How ideological foundations and ‘dark money’ seed activist environmental movement and undermine science
Time was that non-profits were funded by their membership dues or individual donations, loose change drums at airports and clipboard ...
Race, gender and science: Should positionality statement ‘identity biographies’ be mandatory on science research papers?
In Defense of Universalism in Science In a November article in Science magazine, journalist Rachael Zamzow informs us that many ...
Viewpoint: Are ESG — environmental, social and governance — goals the next step in corporate citizenship or an activist imposition?
Corporate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance measurements have recently polarised the business community. Many see it as the next ...
‘Perhaps GMOs are closer to natural processes than we think’: How genetic modification mimics natural evolution of plants
Genetically modified (GM) crops may be controversial, but similar processes happen naturally with wild plants. However, scientists have long been ...
Glyphosate can harm pregnant women living near farms? Carelessly-written article based on the same authors’ more sober academic study shows how misinformation metastasizes
Authors claim glyphosate “health concerns”- but what do the data actually say? ...
Are pesticide residues on food something to worry about?
Just like anything that goes into your body, it’s the dose (the amount) that matters ...
Will England emerge as a world innovator in gene-edited crops?
Brexit has been a disaster for the UK. It has not spurred the great economic revival that many of the ...
A llama-inspired way to protect crops
Most of us will never see a live llama except at a zoo unless we have an opportunity to travel ...
Pesticides and Food: It’s not a black or white issue — Has pesticide use decreased since the introduction of GMO crops?
What is the truth about crop pesticides and their residues in food in 2018? ...
Viewpoint: Perversity activism — How European anti-biotechnology NGOs end up promoting commodity-crop farming, consolidating the seed market and undermining sustainability
One of the most attractive advantages of NGTs is the low cost of entry for innovators. Labs in developing countries ...
Viewpoint: Activists shift tactics on glyphosate, attacking independent European science-oversight agencies that have unanimously found the herbicide safe
Glyphosate ate the world! Every single day another serious disease, from all types of cancer to Parkinson’s, is attributed to ...
