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.
Engineering soil bacteria could help develop enhanced, ‘non-GMO’ crops for Europe
Plant breeding – a method of selecting plants from a group that have the desired properties – is central to ...
CRISPR could help protect Atlantic salmon from sea lice, reducing need for harsh chemical treatments
Researchers at Norwegian institute Nofima are investigating whether gene editing could provide an answer to the problem of sea lice ...
5 steps African governments should take to keep food systems intact when the next pandemic hits
COVID-19 has hit world economies hard, and the agricultural sector is no exception. Restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of ...
Glyphosate on trial: California Supreme Court rejects request from Bayer to review first Roundup-cancer verdict
Bayer AG’s Monsanto Co. lost a bid for the California Supreme Court to review the first multimillion-dollar jury award to ...
Replacing pesticides: Expected chlorpyrifos ban spurs development of more sustainable insecticides
A broad-spectrum insecticide that kills all arthropods in its path, chlorpyrifos was used for decades throughout the US .... But ...
GM Impossible Burger hits 200 grocery stories in Asia, as effort to ‘replace’ meat moves forward
[Impossible Foods'] flagship imitation beef product went on sale in 200 supermarkets across Hong Kong and Singapore on Tuesday. Impossible's ...
Video: GM insect-resistant cotton boosted India’s crop yields 29% and farmer incomes $24.31 billion
Insect-resistant (IR) cotton has impacted the lives of Indian farmers since it was introduced in 2002. This is according to ...
Drought, cropland expansion push Great Plains toward ‘Dust Bowl 2.0,’ climate scientists say
Earlier [in October], a storm front swept across the Great Plains of the United States, plowing up a wall of ...
Plant-based burgers….now milk? Impossible Foods aims to make realistic dairy alternative without cows
.... Impossible Foods, makers of the Impossible Burger and other plant-based meat alternatives, are working on another food replacement that ...
Cowspiracy? GMO OMG? Beware of misleading food ‘documentaries,’ ex-organic farmer warns
Not long ago, I spoke to a teacher who had recently shown Food, Inc. to her class, and she asked me my ...
Doctor breeds better livestock for Africa
When Dr. Baker Bakashaba graduated from Uganda’s Makerere University Medical School in 2014, a close family friend gave him the ...
Thank India and Pakistan for dairy. They’ve been producing milk and cheese since 2500 BC
The lands that make up modern-day Pakistan and India have been producing dairy for almost five thousand years now, according ...
Despite federal court ruling, California may put Prop 65 cancer label on glyphosate weedkiller
On October 6, 2020, the California Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (DARTIC) announced it will be meeting on December 11, ...
Wealthy countries fear GM crops, while developing nations say they will ‘mostly help,’ poll shows
Up to 60 percent of people worldwide are worried the food they eat will harm them in the next two ...
World Food Day: Post-pandemic food security and resilience in Bangladesh
As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lays waste to lives and livelihoods in countries around the globe, [October ...
Genetic engineering reveals how Venus flytrap spots prey, shedding light on plant’s short-term ‘memory’
A Venus flytrap’s short-term “memory” can last about 30 seconds. If an insect taps the plant’s sensitive hairs only once, ...
Biofortified GM crops may be a long-term solution to global micronutrient deficiencies
Over two billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies due to insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals. Poor sections of ...
Rewilding farmland can protect biodiversity and sequester carbon, new study finds
Restoring ecosystems on just 15 percent of the world’s current farmland could spare 60 percent of the species expected to ...
Ending hunger: Researchers are giving smallholder farmers the wrong advice, study claims
How can research help to end hunger? One way to answer this question is to assess published research on hunger, ...
Insect-resistant GM eggplant could boost Philippines’ crop yields 192%, reduce pesticide use 48%
Eggplant is an economically important vegetable in the Philippines, where its production accounts for nearly one-third of the total volume ...
Percy Schmeiser, farmer made famous by legal battle with Monsanto, dies at 89
Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan farmer who became famous during his legal battle with biotech giant Monsanto, has died. John Schmeiser ...
Bayer, BASF claim new chemical mixed with drift-prone dicamba weedkiller can minimize off-target damage
Chemical makers Bayer AG and BASF are pushing to keep a controversial weedkiller on the market after a federal court ...
Viewpoint: Activists aim to block GM chestnut tree by hyping potential risks and ignoring real benefits
For more than 30 years, the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) has been engaged in a privately financed program .... to produce ...
EU’s only cultivated GM crop, insect-resistant Bt corn, poses no risk to humans or the environment, study finds
Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA assessed the 2018 post‐market environmental monitoring (PMEM) report on the cultivation ...
Judge dismisses lawsuit alleging that ‘natural’ apple juice shouldn’t contain trace pesticides
On October 6, 2020, a California judge dismissed an amended complaint alleging that apple juice and applesauce products sold by ...
Del Monte launches GM pineapple with pink flesh and sweeter flavor, 15 years in the making
The rosy pineapple is now available nationwide for purchase online in its own individual box at pinkglowpineapple.com, but it doesn’t ...
Philippines poised to embrace gene-edited animals? Lawmakers debate rules for ‘safe’ use of modern biotech
Masbate Rep. Elisa “Olga” Kho has cited the importance of animal biotechnology in improving the health and welfare of animals ...
