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.
Viewpoint: Meta-review of 266 studies concludes weedkiller paraquat doesn’t cause Parkinson’s disease
In order to examine the extent to which a consensus exists in the scientific community regarding the relationship between paraquat ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka economic crisis deepens as recently-imposed chemical fertilizer ban stirs inflation in a country already suffering from the pandemic
An ill-advised ban on the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, combined with pandemic-induced contraction of the economy and decline ...
Wind-proof corn? New hybrid variety withstands 100 mile per hour winds, helping crops survive unpredictable and extreme weather
Only one corn-breeding line out of about 150 remained standing after a derecho slammed into Beck's Superior Hybrids nursery, near ...
Each half portion of beef you swap out could add 48 minutes to your life — and cut your meal’s carbon footprint by one third
Substituting just half a portion of beef with a handful of nuts, vegetables, fruits, and seafood could buy you 48 ...
Viewpoint: ‘Nature fetishism’ — Affluent Westerners increasingly reject science, spreading unwarranted suspicions about nuclear energy, biotech-modified seeds and vaccines
If you asked people to name the most dangerous ideologies of our time, common answers would be authoritarianism, racism and ...
Viewpoint: ‘Endless war’ — Nigeria and other African countries challenged by conflicting claims about benefits and alleged unknowns of GMO crops
There’s been an endless war against the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Nigerian food staples and its touted ...
Major disruption: Conventional meat and dairy businesses face serious challenges as alternative innovations blossom
Meat and dairy products in recent years have battled plant-based alternatives for consumer dollars. Now, another competitor looms. “Major disruption ...
Sri Lanka’s plan to go ‘all organic’ and end use of synthetic chemicals leaves staple tea industry in ‘complete disarray’
Sri Lanka’s drive to become the world’s first 100 percent organic food producer threatens its prized tea industry and has ...
‘Waste can be reimagined as a resource’: How insects are making trash sustainable
[Chua Kai-Ning] and her partner, Phua Jun Wei, founded startup Insectta in 2017. They are battling Singapore's food waste crisis ...
‘Science-based farming optimized for reduced environmental impact’: What’s behind the hydroponic farming boom — and attempts to deny its sustainability advantages?
Hydroponic farming allows for vertical farming, because it is not dependent on the soil. This allows for greater plant yield ...
Viewpoint: ‘Neonicotinoids and other seed treatments are a precise tool and critical component of safe, integrated pest management practices’ — American Seed Association challenges ‘misunderstandings’
Treated seeds have been widely adopted by growers for two key reasons: 1. They are a highly effective tool for farmers ...
Harnessing biotechnology: Faced with 720 million undernourished people around the world, UN embraces genetic engineering and precision agriculture
In 2020, between 720 and 811 million people were undernourished globally, around 161 million more people than in 2019. Conflict ...
For the first time, India opens gates to imported GM farm products for use as animal feed
The first consignment of 50,000 tonnes of genetically modified (GM) soyameal from Bangladesh has arrived in India via the land ...
Viewpoint: Here’s how activist scientists use exaggerated fears of trace chemicals as a subterfuge to try to derail crop biotechnology
Environmental Health published on August 3, 2021 “Commentary: Novel strategies and new tools to curtail the health effects of pesticides” ...
Ghana’s first genetically modified crop – pod borer resistant cowpea — is poised to address widespread protein deficiency challenges
A Senior Research Scientist with the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ...
Cheese without the cow? Lactose-intolerant Shell engineer developing gene-edited soybean-based ‘cheese’ that stretches, tastes and toasts just like the real thing
In the United States alone, roughly 9 million cows are devoted to churning out torrents of milk a year which, ...
Video: Are pesticides harmful or bad for biodiversity? Challenging 5 widely-held myths
Below, you will find five of the most common myths about pesticides, and the truth about them. MYTH: Pesticides are ...
Why researchers are vacuuming ‘environmental DNA’ from the sky
Scientists have been using environmental DNA (eDNA) for more than 10 years to measure biodiversity and discover new species, often ...
Viewpoint: The biggest threat to our food supply is not chemicals but chemophobia
My cousin is a baking whiz, and runs her own cookie enterprise. The recipes happen to call for potato flour ...
Infographics: Biotech crops have benefited more than 65 million people around the world. Here are some of the benefits
Since 1996, the global area planted to biotech crops has consistently increased, with significant expansion recorded in developing countries. In ...
Ghana edges toward adopting pest resistant GMO cowpea
[The Ghanian] government says its decision on whether to approve Ghana’s first genetically modified crop will be based on science ...
Viewpoint: Why criticism of the Green Revolution is misplaced
The wheat varieties developed by Norman Borlaug and his Mexican team [during the Green Revolution] swept over Asia in the ...
Gene drives to control plant pests show promise but technological and public acceptance hurdles loom
Arthropods crop pests are responsible for 20% of global annual crop losses, a figure predicted to increase in a changing ...
Vertical farms inside restaurants? How hydroponics is creating a natural farming future — indoors
Based on cultivation techniques that do not require the use of soil and which generally have an excellent application even ...
Viewpoint: 13 million American children go undernourished each day. Fad-based conventional food criticisms make the problem worse
As many as 1 in 6 kids in the United States are living in a food insecure household. These 13 ...
Organic farming offers some nutritional advantages — but these benefits are limited. Here’s a science review
Stimulated by the distribution trade and various favorable promotional messages, the demand for organic food continues to grow steadily, despite ...
Viewpoint: OMG! GMO! Killer ice cream? Here’s the latest in anti-biotechnology hysteria
If you're worried about never-ending wars, crippling national debt, poverty, disease, social unrest, or even really bad stomach aches, the ...
