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.
Mexico’s anti-glyphosate environment minister steps down after losing battle to ban weedkiller
Bosco de la Vega Valladolid, president of the National Agricultural Council (CNA), celebrated the departure of Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur ...
Edible plant-based vaccines could help quash infectious diseases in poor countries
Edible plant-based vaccines were developed to become part of the solution to address the possible hazards associated with the parenteral ...
Viewpoint: Why the USDA should approve GMO disease-resistant chestnut trees
You may [have] heard “chestnuts on an open fire” at Christmas but they are a lot of rarer than they ...
Pesticide-free crop protection yields sizable economic benefits in Asia-Pacific
Scientists have estimated for the first time how nature-based solutions for agricultural pest control deliver US$14.6 to US$19.5 billion annually ...
EPA may relax rules on some pest-resistant crops to promote ‘science-based’ regulation
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to exempt from its regulation some biotech crops that are genetically engineered to be ...
Bacteria-infected mosquitoes cut dengue cases by 77 percent, study shows
Researchers have infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—the species responsible for passing on many diseases—with bacteria called Wolbachia with the intent of ...
Bayer appeals $20.5 million glyphosate-cancer verdict to California Supreme Court
Bayer AG has asked California’s Supreme Court to review a decision awarding $20.5 million to a groundskeeper who claimed the ...
Viewpoint: US farm productivity shows Europe why rejecting biotech crops was a mistake
Over the past two decades, Europe has decided to go its own way in agricultural policy. While both North and ...
GMO corn could help combat voracious pests, drought in Nigeria, field study shows
Nigeria’s quest to introduce maize varieties resistant to insect pests such as Stem Borer and Fall Army Worm (FAW) and ...
Monarch butterflies avoid pesticide-treated milkweed to limit chemical exposure
Hundreds of recent studies have voiced concern over the negative impacts of non‐target pesticides on pollinator health. However, pesticide loads ...
Meat from algae: The next plant-based contribution to sustainable food production?
Microalgae capture sunlight using pigments of vibrant colors, such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and phycocyanin. In particular, the algae spirulina and ...
Viewpoint: Federal court banned dicamba weedkiller at worst possible time for farmers
As a farmer whose family has raised soybeans, corn, and pumpkins for the last 50 years, I know first-hand how ...
Insect-resistant cowpea demonstrations across Nigeria aim to build farmer support for GMO crop
The Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University (IAR/ABU) Zaria and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) have concluded arrangements ...
Socialist EU Parliament member urges regulators to block neonicotinoid pesticide use in France
French Socialist MEP Eric Andrieu says he has written to the European Commission to ask for the suspension of a ...
Engineering rice plant roots increases crop yields in salty soil, study shows
Genetically improving the root system architectures of plants is an effective strategy for developing climate-resilient crops. In this study, we ...
Judge fears Bayer ‘manipulated’ $11 billion glyphosate settlement, opening door to more cancer trials
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said during a hearing [August 27] he’s concerned Bayer has “manipulated” the [$11 billion] settlement ...
FDA launches high-school curriculum to teach students about GMOs, CRISPR
Food agriculture is a topic of great interest to farmers, consumers, scientists, educators, and many people of all ages. After ...
USDA approves gene-edited mustard greens with improved flavor profile
CRISPR-focused produce startup Pairwise got approval in mid-August from the USDA for their gene-edited version of Brassica juncea, more commonly ...
Viewpoint: American agriculture could ‘unravel’ without major sustainability changes
Picture an ideal dinner plate. If you’re like most Americans, it features a hearty portion of meat, from animals fattened ...
Judge may reject FDA AquaBounty GMO salmon approval, citing risk to ‘local ecology’
At a hearing [August 25], U.S. District Judge Vincent Chhabria said he’s concerned that AquaBounty, the biotech company behind the ...
Rainfed GMO insect-resistant Bt cotton in India cuts pesticide use 28 percent, study finds
Scientists from Alagappa University in India conducted a study to analyze the performance of insect resistant Bt cotton in rainfed areas. The results are published ...
Study challenges prior research blaming decline of monarch butterflies on deaths during annual migration
A new study suggests that extensive agricultural use of glyphosate herbicide is to blame for the decades-long decline in North ...
Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat dismiss criticism from rival Lightlife Foods as a PR stunt
In an open letter slammed by Impossible Foods as cynical and disingenuous and dismissed by one commentator as a “PR ...
Lightlife urges Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods to drop ‘hyper-processed ingredients, GMOs’ from plant-based burgers
About a year ago, Lightlife President Dan Curtin challenged his team to make the cleanest plant-based burger they could create, ...
Viewpoint: Cameron Diaz, Katherine Power promote ‘clean wine’ with organic farming myths
In the wake of the natural wine movement and the age of ‘wellness’, it was just a matter of time ...
Video: USDA to decide fate of American chestnut restoration
University researchers are seeking approval to restore the iconic chestnut to American forests by using a genetically engineered (GE) variety ...
Viewpoint: When politics and emotion dictate pesticide safety rules, farmers lose
What happens when science is overwhelmed by politics, rhetoric, emotions, and the vessels now used to perpetuate it — social ...
