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.
As AquaBounty readies US rollout of GMO salmon, scientists hope for jumpstart of biotech animal research
A genetically modified salmon will become the first GM food animal to go on sale in the US, according to ...
Climate change fuels rising arsenic levels in rice. GM crop varieties, new growing techniques could cut toxic exposure
Rice is particularly vulnerable to arsenic uptake because unlike most crops, it grows in flooded conditions with anoxic soil. Microbes ...
GMO ban in food-insecure Ghana would be ‘dangerous,’ deputy agriculture minister warns
[A December 7 Agriculture Manifesto Forum organized by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana] discussed the strategies in the 2020 ...
Nigeria validates gene-editing guidelines to ensure safe development of CRISPR crops
The [Nigerian] National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) on [December 9], formally validated its National Biosafety Guidelines on Gene Editing. The ...
French Constitutional Council temporarily rescinds neonic pesticide ban, ‘much to the chagrin of environmentalists’
The Constitutional Council on [Dec 10] gave the green light to the law re-authorizing for three years the use of ...
GM fish food deal brings sustainable salmon a step closer to commercialization
Rothamsted Research, a United Kingdom plant science research institute, has signed a collaboration agreement with a bioscience company that brings ...
Bangladesh could double crop production by 2030 with help of GM technology, experts say
USAID and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) hosted [a virtual] event to learn from stakeholders about challenges, prospects, and ...
Viewpoint: ‘Organic crops are healthier than GMOs,’ and 6 other anti-science myths we should forget
As much as we hate to acknowledge it, many of the once-viable ideas that are swimming around in the memory ...
‘We can’t rule out new solutions’: German Greens poised to reconsider skepticism of crop biotechnology?
[T]he world is looking to research laboratories like Mainz, Cambridge and other cities, where vaccines are being developed these days ...
Plant-based meat: Wholesome food, science experiment—or both?
Makers of plant-based meat deal with a constant balancing act between promoting their products as simple, wholesome food and also ...
Viewpoint: Health risks of GMOs never materialized, so activist groups now misinform about biodiversity impact of GM crops
[A]fter 20 years without presenting a single proven case of harm from biotech crops, [the anti-GMO activists'] argument has collapsed ...
Japan poised to approve first gene-edited food, tomato that fights high blood pressure
Current genome-editing technologies are more efficient than ever before, making it possible to modify genes as if editing sentences on ...
‘We have to be profitable’: French winegrowers protest costly glyphosate weedkiller restrictions
Three hundred winegrowers gathered in Narbonne [on Dec. 8] at the call of the winegrowers’ union and the FDSEA. They ...
High-tech solutions emerge to help quell Africa’s catastrophic locust outbreak – the worst in decades
[Masters student Amoah Idun and his team] glue a 150mg tracking device to a chosen [locust’s] thorax, looking like a ...
Infographic: Crop biotech boosts farm productivity $225 billion, improving lives of millions globally
More than 25 years have passed since the first biotech crops were introduced. Since then, genetically modified crops using biotechnology ...
Gene-edited, pollen-free cedar tree could help allergy sufferers breathe easier in spring
It is said that 30% of people are suffering from pollinosis [hay fever]. Research on producing pollen-free Sugi [Japanese red cedar] ...
France will pay farmers to give up popular glyphosate weedkiller after proposed ban fails
France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on [Dec ...
With sugar output down nearly 25%, UK beet farmers pressure government to lift ban on neonic pesticides
Sugar beet processor British Sugar said that just over two months into the beet harvesting campaign, white sugar production is ...
Antioxidants: Magic bullets for health and longevity—or marketing gimmick?
Antioxidants are chemical compounds that can be a vitamin, mineral, enzyme, or one of thousands of other naturally occurring plant ...
GM eggplant helps farmers reduce pesticide use and increase profits, study finds
Bangladeshi farmers significantly reduced pesticide use and increased their profits by growing genetically modified (GM) eggplant, a new study confirms ...
Cell-cultured ‘chicken bites’: Cruelty-free meat produced in a lab without slaughtering an animal approved for sale for first time, in Singapore
[C]ultured meat, produced in bioreactors without the slaughter of an animal, has been approved for sale by a regulatory authority ...
Molecular breeding accelerates disease-resistant crop production—needed more than ever in developing world
To adequately confront rapidly changing plant pests and diseases and safeguard food security for a growing population, breeders — in ...
Relying on agroecology will jeopardize Africa’s food security, farm official warns
An international push for Africa to adopt agroecology as its main agricultural production method threatens to jeopardize the continent’s food ...
EPA pitches new rules to limit risks linked to chlopyrifos insecticide exposure
EPA announced a proposal on [Dec. 4] to improve the safety of using the insecticide chlorpyrifos. The proposal follows a ...
EU Court of Justice tosses Brussels lawsuit seeking to ban glyphosate weedkiller
Europe’s highest court on [Dec. 3] tossed out a challenge from Brussels to the European Commission decision that lets Europeans ...
Latin American researchers use gene editing to develop new crops that benefit farmers and consumers
Latin American farmers are partnering with scientists to create new crop varieties using gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-CAS 9 in ...
‘What are we afraid of?’ Swiss farm officials frustrated by government’s proposed GMO ban extension
Making agricultural production more sustainable is a matter of survival for the global population, with an estimated nine billion mouths ...
