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.
Why do we need gene-edited crops? To make farming more sustainable
Crop improvement has been one of the main targets in research due to the rapid increase of world population. Crop ...
Viewpoint: Agroecology advocates threaten California agriculture with ‘primitive’ farming practices
To respond to crises, agriculture must be as efficient, innovative and resilient as possible. Even in California, whose agriculture is ...
Viewpoint: ‘Wellness influencers’ rely on shopper science ignorance to sell ‘clean’ products
The purpose of [“wellness influencer”] accounts is typically to sell “cleaner” or more “natural” products, but they don’t achieve that ...
Nuclear technology yields cotton ready to withstand withering heat waves brought on by global warming
[C]limate extremes such as heat waves and increasing temperatures have been impacting the cotton industry, which has seen an unprecedented ...
With neighboring countries battling crop-ravaging locusts, Zimbabwe readies itself for potential outbreak
Shingirai Nyamutukwa, head of the [Zimbabwe] Plant Quarantine and Plant Protection Research Services Institute [January 17] said there was an ...
Organic vs conventional: Which farming method is more sustainable? A case study from California
California's Central Valley produces more than 250 different crops comprising one-fourth of the nation's food, including 40% of our fruits, ...
New crop-destroying locust swarms hitting East Africa ‘nearly every day,’ UN warns in renewed call to fight major food security threat
Dominique Burgeon, FAO’s [the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization] Director of Emergencies and Resilience, said the huge [African] desert locust ...
Success of CRISPR tomato may determine if gene-edited foods take root in Japan
[A gene-edited tomato recently approved in Japan] contains a large amount of "gamma-aminobutyric acid" (a type of amino acid, commonly ...
With bioengineered food labels showing up in stores, here’s what you should know about GMOs
While “genetic engineering” is the term typically used by scientists, you will start seeing the “bioengineered” label on some of ...
Genetic engineering could immunize bananas against deadly Fusarium wilt without cutting crop yields
Bananas are one of the most important crops in developing countries and their industry is constantly under threat due to ...
Nitrogen-efficient rice could preserve crop yields while cutting environmental impact of fertilizer
Nitrogen fertilizer has an indispensable role in increasing crop yields, but on the other hand, it creates a severe threat ...
Organic food, often linked with progressive politics, is also popular among white supremacists
While most people associate organic food and farmers markets with progressive politics and cosmopolitan values, they’re also a draw for ...
Viewpoint: Organic, non-GMO marketing claims drive poor people away from healthier food choices
Many food organizations, celebrity chefs, food bloggers, and talk show hosts like to push the idea that eating right means ...
Saltwater algae genes could help engineer plants that survive in regions with high water salinity
Researchers from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), in partnership with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), have uncovered ...
Africa biotech setback: Tanzania suspends GM crop research, ending trials of insect-resistant corn and virus-resistant cassava
Agriculture minister Prof Adolf Mkenda made the announcement on [January 12] at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Mikocheni centre ...
GM, insect-resistant Bt rice unlikely to pose a health risk, study shows
Rice is considered one of the most important staple food crops. Genetically modified (GM) Bt rice [harboring the] cry1Ab gene ...
Gene editing offers potential solution to orange growers struggling against citrus greening disease
Brazil is the world's largest orange producer, the state of São Paulo is a world leader in the production and ...
CRISPR gene editing could boost protein in plants and help produce more vegetable oil
Plants synthesize fatty acids in their leaves by using light. Prof. [Jay] Thelen and his team used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas-9 to ...
Viewpoint: UK decision to rescind neonics pesticide restrictions a welcome win for science
Activists like George Monbiot and Dave Goulson are parroting their environmental allies when it comes to neonics, but the science ...
Could heart-healthy soybean oil pave the way for more gene-edited, biofortified foods?
Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have been successfully used to develop premium quality high-oleic soybean oil from gene-edited soybean plants. The ...
Bamboo: Invasive nuisance, or untapped climate change solution for farmers?
Bamboo has a reputation problem in North America, registering in the collective imagination somewhere between tiki torches and a pain-in-the-ass ...
GM plant grows insect sex pheromones as alternative to crop pesticides
Scientists have discovered how to genetically modify the camelina plant to produce pheromone precursors that can control agricultural insect pests ...
Podcast: Debunking ‘dangerous’ anti-GMO misinformation that harms developing countries
Crops and foods improved through biotechnology, popularly known as “GMOs” (for “genetically modified organisms”) remain at the center of a ...
Taco Bell begins offering plant-based meat at UK, EU locations to win back vegan and vegetarian customers
Starting January 7th, Taco Bell locations throughout the UK [began offering] plant-based meat from the brand Gold & Green ...
Many shoppers prefer organic food—unless GM products are cheaper, Canadian survey finds
Agricultural biotechnology produced genetically modified (GM) crops, not only provide economic benefits to farmers, but are beneficial to the environmental, ...
Impossible Foods is on a mission: ‘Eradicate the meat and fish industries by 2035’
Patrick Brown is on a mission: to eradicate the meat and fish industries by 2035. The CEO of Impossible Foods, a ...
Microalgae could help remove nitrates, phosphates and herbicides from polluted waterways
In recent years, the eutrophication that the [Spanish lagoon] Mar Menor has undergone, a process derived from the overload of ...
