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.
Risk vs. hazard: Current regulatory structures rely on outdated and flawed Precautionary Principle to assess potential dangers of chemicals
There has been a long running controversy about the relative merits of hazard-based versus risk-based approaches in managing the potential ...
Philippines greenlights Golden Rice, opening floodgates for other nutritionally-enhanced biotech crops
Golden rice, enriched with vitamin A and designed to end suffering among the world's poorest children, has been approved in ...
Simulating nature: South African biorefinery modeled after four-stomach system found in cows
For billions of years, nature has perfected ways of dealing with the recycling of materials. Like a good housekeeper who ...
No more coffee or chocolate? Climate change could turn many everyday foods into rare luxuries
While historically certain foods such as coffee, chocolate and spices were luxury items, today these foods are supermarket staples in ...
Precision fermentation: How humans harness microbe-based biochemistry to make food more delicious
Humans have been harnessing microbe-based biochemistry for food preservation since before history began. Without lactic-acid fermentation a bumper crop of ...
Powerful argument for lab-grown meat: Although low- and middle-income countries contain only 40% of the world population, they make up 75% of deaths from food-borne illnesses
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition found that low- and middle-income countries make up 75% of the deaths from food-borne ...
Infographic: US honeybee population reverses declines, shows sharp 8% increase over past decade, documents USDA
Over the last 20 years, the U.S. beekeeping industry has experienced significant changes that have included fluctuating honey bee colony ...
Appealing to ‘scientific consensus’ can correct GMO misconceptions — but is not effective against climate change denial, study finds
Despite mountains of evidence that genetically modified foods are safe and climate change is real, many people still doubt these ...
When will we reach a future in which meat no longer requires animal slaughter? There are still some barriers to that goal
Nearly 100 firms are vying to be the first to bring cultured meat to market. Select locations—including a private club ...
Viewpoint: Public Affairs professor advocates for agroecology systems, claiming technology-centric agricultural programs promoted by Gates Foundation has failed in Africa
Agroecology applies ecology and social science to the creation and management of sustainable food systems and involves 10 or more ...
With 80% of the global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, is vertical farming a viable way to increase sustainable food production?
The agriculture industry is facing a wide range of challenges, trying to keep up with ever-changing markets and, of course, ...
Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate: Europe notably absent in supporting USDA and Gates backed technology driven initiative to increase investment in climate-smart agriculture
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), a landmark initiative to transform the global agricultural sector, now has ...
Church of Scientology key driver of glyphosate class action suits
If it is now established that there would never have been a "glyphosate" case without the decisive impetus given by ...
Bayer claims first victory in glyphosate litigation, as jury rejects claim weedkiller caused a child’s non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Bayer AG won its first trial over claims its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer after a California jury found that the ...
‘Lab grown coffee can be a reality’: Cell-derived coffee on the horizon as demand for java soars, exceeding global supply
Coffee is the third-most drunk beverage in the world, behind water and tea, and global consumption is on the rise ...
Pest resistance developing to fall armyworm-fighting Bt maize prompts pest management strategies
Maize that is genetically engineered to contain specific toxic (to armyworms) proteins created by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has ...
A rechargeable glow-in-the-dark plant made with nanoparticles?
A rechargeable light-emitting plant that glows after being charged for 10 seconds with an LED is being hailed as an ...
Videos: Debunking three viral social media videos that promote ‘snake oil’ products and spread misinformation about the ‘dangers’ of pesticides on produce
Here I’m going to explore three viral videos I’ve come across on social media in which [multi-level marketing, or] MLM ...
Organic food health time bomb? Potentially carcinogenic and confirmed irritant organic pesticide copper sulfate used to grow wine grapes, potatoes and tomatoes found in ‘almost entire French population and in particular children’
The Esteban study of Public Health France of the French population revealed the presence of copper in almost the entire ...
‘This a crop that not only does not exist in the wild, but could not exist in the wild’: Modern corn is humanity’s creation, for mostly better and some worse
While the 1,500 miles of America's corn belt might mislead you into thinking corn is a wild crop, it was ...
Eating more cheese, milk, butter and other products laden with dairy linked to lowered risk of heart disease, study finds
An international team of scientists studied the dairy fat consumption of 4,150 60-year-olds in Sweden — a country with one ...
Viewpoint: The EPA is embracing ‘precautionary politics’ — and abandoning its long-time commitment to evidence-based risk-benefit assessments of agricultural chemicals
Unlike the European Union, the U.S. has maintained a reasonable standard on studied substances allowed for use in modern agriculture ...
‘Hybrids are coming’: Cell-cultured and plant-based meat blends are in development
From soy-based sausages to pea protein burgers, the plant-based category is booming. According to EU data, Europeans’ consumption of plant-based ...
Viewpoint: Why is a university spending as much as $100,000 to host anti-science, anti-biotechnology activist Vandana Shiva?
The University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) has invited Vandana Shiva to speak on October 7th. According to a ...
‘MooLoo’ method: Toilet training cows to reduce their impact on the climate
Farmed cattle are known for their notorious contribution to greenhouse gas emissions—producing roughly 66 to 88 pounds of faeces and ...
Lab-grown fish can help protect our oceans — but does it taste good?
While lab-grown beef might help offset carbon emissions and reduce animal cruelty, the rollout of cell-based fish protein, shellfish and ...
Infographic: ‘There is no clear evidence that differences between organic and conventionally grown foods have any bearing on health’
Yes, there are some differences between organically grown food and food produced using conventional methods, said Siv Kjølsrud Bøhn at ...
