Daily Food & Ag Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of agricultural and food issues, including the GMO debate, conventional and organic farming, regulations, new breeding technologies and sustainability. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
’Neophobia’: Consumers like what gene editing has to offer, but are still afraid of new technologies. Survey suggests why we need more biotech education
This article uses a consumer survey to gather perceptions regarding food safety, gene editing and willingness to consume for three ...
Less pesticides and more food? Pioneering Cuban biologist believes merging agroecology with genetic engineering could protect the environment and feed growing population
Achieving, as quickly as possible, food security and sovereignty and reducing the high volumes of imports in this vital sector ...
Viewpoint: ‘What was already problematic before the war in Ukraine has become catastrophic’—Europe’s Farm-to-Fork agriculture policy would exacerbate global food crisis
There is a nascent tsunami of food shortages, a wave whose devastating power is only just beginning to emerge. In ...
‘More food grown on less land with less water’: Why agricultural intensification is the key to sustainable farming
Rising food prices, gaps on shelves and requests from supermarket chains to be kind and try something else if a ...
Modern crop improvement takes a historical approach
Sorghum, rice, wheat, maize and barley are hugely important in the human diet, with more than 50 percent of all ...
Varroa mites, not chemicals, are honeybees’ greatest threat. A new bee breed could protect them
A new breed of honey bee has been developed to resist its greatest parasite by removing infested larvae from its ...
Viewpoint: George Washington University School of Public Health and anti-pesticide economist Charles Benbrook caught in ethics breach
A recent public release from a graduate student at George Washington University claimed insights from old data answers new questions in newly published research. These ...
Oxitec expanding GMO mosquito trials in bid to control the spread of malaria
Oxitec Ltd. will soon begin field tests of its genetically modified self-limiting mosquitoes in Mesoamerica and the Horn of Africa in an ...
Climate-friendly synthetic meat and eggs on the menu in China’s 5-year food security independence plan
For the first time, China’s most recent Five-Year Plan for Agriculture, published in January, includes references to cultivated meat and other ...
Study: How do we reach ‘food security? Biotechnology is key
Global warming causes a range of negative impacts on plants especially due to rapid changes in temperatures, alterations of rainfall ...
Is lab-grown food ‘Frankenstein stuff’? Biggest challenge is not ‘food fears’ or consumer resistance, but scale and cost
Remilk, founded in 2019, is producing the key functional ingredients of milk using a yeast-based fermentation process. Yeast normally produces ...
Viewpoint: How Russian-Ukraine war and looming global food shortages underscore absurdity of Europe’s unsustainable ‘green’ Farm-to-Fork policy
The war [in Ukraine] has served as a wake-up call for the EU, heavily dependent on Ukraine's grain and Russia's ...
GMO microbes that eat pollution? How biotechnology can sustainably cleanse our water
Limiting PFAS in wastewater will be a challenge. After all, these substances do not break down in the environment. At ...
Positively disruptive technology: Argentina debates the mostly pros and few cons of genetically modified crops
Drought has hit the economies of South America and has ruinous consequences for agricultural production. A possible solution to such losses – ...
Higher prices for meat, milk and eggs? Increased greenhouse gas emissions? Study documents sustainability drawbacks of non-GMO animal feed
Continued demand for non-GMO feed for livestock will increase greenhouse gas emissions on farms, and raise consumer prices for meat, ...
‘Meat the Future’: Jane Goodall-narrated documentary explores future of cell-grown ‘clean meat’
In Meat the Future, streaming on most major platforms starting this week, we meet a team of scientists led by cardiac ...
Viewpoint: Let’s take a hard look at ‘popular wisdom’ that glyphosate poses health dangers
In 2017, [Davis, California city] council voted to eliminate the application of glyphosate by the end of 2020 in “high ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pesticide choice should be about what works and what doesn’t’ — Challenging claims that organics are superior because they use ‘natural’ chemicals
Witness organics. Despite little evidence of its supposed merits, devotees will steadfastly defend their “team.” It’s widely touted in marketing ...
Brazil doubles production of insect-resistant GMO sugarcane over past year with new variety for poor soil in the wings
Brazilian farmers are set to nearly double the area planted with transgenic sugarcane in the season starting this month, the ...
Farm student addresses concerns raised about GMO crops and food
As the population continues to grow, more and more people are living in urban areas that lack, or do not ...
Viewpoint: A science-backed case in support of organic farming
Conventional or intensive farming and gardening is dominated by monocultures – fields of crop plants and nothing else. These are ...
Malawi farmers claim 100% yield boost using insect-resistant Bt cotton
The National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) says Bt cotton – a genetically modified variety – has improved farmers’ ...
Academic study: EU’s Farm-to-Fork would lead to higher prices and lower production
The [Farm to Fork, or] F2F strategy, as part of the [European Green Deal, or] EGD, reduces the production of ...
Giraffe meat? Bengal tiger burgers? Start-up using cell cultures to create exotic new tastes without harming animals
Cultivated meat companies most frequently focus on the largest meat categories- beef, chicken and pork. However, Primeval Foods has stepped ...
With Ukraine’s corn crop endangered by war, European farmers turn to GMO feed
European farmers are set to buy more genetically modified animal feed from the U.S. and South America after Russia’s invasion ...
How nutrients in food impact genes and influence your health
People typically think of food as calories, energy and sustenance. However, the latest evidence suggests that food also “talks” to ...
Viewpoint: ‘There are more dangerous chemicals under your kitchen sink than the ‘demon’ glyphosate’ — Here’s why the world’s most popular herbicide is safe
Glyphosate, which is sold as Roundup, often makes the headlines as being the demon pesticide and the cause of all ...
