Science Controversies
GMO Bt cotton poised to revive Philippines’ industry, reduce pesticide use
Following a multi-year slump, the Philippine cotton industry is anticipating a renaissance through the help of an innovative, science-based crop that farmers ...
Geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam: Genetic engineering could save farm animals from disease
Alison Van Eenennaam is one of agriculture’s leading voices of reason and persuasion in support of good science in food ...
Indian scientist: For some crops, genetic engineering ‘only option’ to improve food security
[Editor's note: Rajeev Varshney is Research Program Director for Genetic Gains, at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech groups’ master plan substitutes ‘citizen science’ for data in quest to get glyphosate banned
The European Union resisted the lobbying of organic and anti-biotech groups to renew authorization of glyphosate, although only for five ...
French President Macron advocates glyphosate herbicide ban within 3 years
The European Union voted on Monday [Nov. 27] to extend its authorization for the world’s best-selling herbicide for an abbreviated ...
Non-glyphosate certified: New label promises lower levels of herbicide residue
Scott Prentice, executive director of BioChecked, has been in the food certification business since 2010. However, he's made the most ...
Food fight: GMO labeling disagreements behind food lobby shakeup?
Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, rocked food circles in late October with the news that it was leaving the ...
EU renews glyphosate herbicide license for 5 years, ending ‘heated debate’
EU countries approved on Monday [Nov. 27] the use of weed-killer glyphosate for the next five years after a heated ...
Does air pollution reach the womb, eventually leading to heart disease and shorter lives?
New research gives expectant mothers reason to be more cautious with air pollution, which can cause damage to the critical ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO movement perpetuates sexism, food insecurity
An acronym that conjures specters like pesticides, cancer, obesity, the transformation of life forms into intellectual property, and corporate control ...
Video: Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on ‘troubling trend’ of misleading food labels
There’s been a lot of talk about the mandatory GMO disclosure law passed by the US Congress in 2016. The ...
Nano-mapping DNA mutations with CRISPR could transform disease treatment
A team of scientists led by Virginia Commonwealth University physicist Jason Reed, Ph.D., have developed new nanomapping technology that could ...
Dolly the sheep revisited: Early health fears about clones ‘greatly exaggerated’
[L]ast year, Kevin Sinclair, a developmental biologist at the University of Nottingham, published a paper about several clones including Dolly’s four “sisters,” who ...
Spy plants? DARPA working on genetically engineered surveillance sensors
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the think-tank that’s under the U.S. Department of Defense, recently announced that it’s ...
Viewpoint: GMO crops are future of African farming—if anti-biotech activists get out of the way
[I]nfluenced by European environmentalists, most African countries forbid the growing of genetically modified crops. This is a pity, because unless ...
Anti-biotechnology fake news: ‘Natural News’ claims RNAi used to ‘eliminate black people’
Anti-GMO campaigners are promoting a new conspiracy theory conflating the pioneering genetics technology of RNAi with anti-vaxxer myths and a ...
Mexico revokes Monsanto permit to develop GMO soybean seeds in 7 states
Agriculture sanitation authority Senasica has revoked a permit held by Monsanto to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven Mexican states ...
Argentina authorizes new herbicide-resistant GMO soybean seeds
Argentina authorized on Friday [Nov. 24] the use of genetically modified soybean seeds resistant to herbicides other than glyphosate, as ...
France to vote against 5-year EU renewal of glyphosate herbicide
France will vote against a five-year extension of the license for weed-killer glyphosate that the European Commission will propose on ...
Food, vaccines and medicine: How plant scientists are changing the world
[Editor's note: Erica Hawkins is a PhD student at the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia studying medicinal plant ...
French scientist calls for inquiry into IARC’s ‘misbehavior’ on glyphosate cancer study
Following revelations that IARC withheld data showing the herbicide glyphosate does not cause cancer, French molecular geneticist Marcel Kuntz calls ...
Genetic Literacy Project’s Top 6 Stories for the Week – Nov. 27, 2017
CRISPR breathing new life into crop breeding—can it avoid GMO controversy? | Andrew Porterfield Viewpoint: Genetic engineering’s benefits extend far beyond ...
Talking Biotech: Pet dogs with genetic diseases testing ground for gene therapy
Journalist Emily Mullin: Gene therapies becoming more promising but restricted in humans because of safety concerns, prompting some researchers to ...
Fighting Zika: Gene edited, 3-eyed flightless mosquitoes
[I]n an effort to demonstrate how gene editing could be used to eradicate the mosquito species Aedes aegypti —a major carrier of ...
New disease-resistant GMO soybean variety could protect crop from ‘sudden death syndrome’
An Iowa State University agronomist is charting mechanisms – gene by gene – that could lead to soybean varieties resistant ...
Genetics of mental health yield surprising connections but no cures
Scientists are slowly uncovering the genes and mechanisms that cause mental health disorders, but we are a long way from ...
Promising GMO and gene-edited wheat varieties hindered by costly regulations, consumer concerns
“Everything that my lab has produced is down in the basement.” That is how Peggy G. Lemaux, Ph.D., described the ...
