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.
GMO tomato as edible COVID vaccine? Mexican scientists work to make it a reality
While large companies and public sector consortiums in the United States, Canada, China and Europe are running at full speed ...
Second massive locust swarm hits East Africa, exacerbating already severe food shortage threat
They’re back: Trillions of locusts descend on East Africa in second wave. Think of locusts as giant, hormonally charged, very ...
Following restaurant debut, gene-edited, heart-healthy soybean oil now available directly to consumers
Plant-based technology company Calyxt has launched a direct-to-consumer site for its high oleic soybean cooking oil, Calyno, which is claimed ...
Despite GMO Bt insect-resistant cotton approval, Ethiopia still skittish about widespread biotech crop cultivation
The Ethiopian government has denied approving the commercial cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) other than two Bt cotton varieties ...
Plant-based beef ingredients from China may hurt Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat sales
While America's biggest beef and pork producers were nearly laid low in April by COVID-19 cases in their workforce, sales ...
GMO corn cultivation in Europe has no adverse environmental effects, decade-long study confirms
In European regulations for the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the objective of General Surveillance ...
Impossible Foods rolls out plant-based GMO burger to 1,700 new stores as COVID-19 strains meat supplies
As more meat plants temporarily close or operate at reduced capacity as coronavirus spreads, plant-based brands “have a window of ...
Ethiopian geneticist defends his country’s decision to approve GMO insect-resistant Bt cotton
A recent report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service welcoming the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE) ...
Glyphosate to blame for COVID-19? Here’s how we know Bayer’s weedkiller didn’t cause the pandemic
An MIT computer scientist with no expertise in agriculture, chemistry, toxicology, or the biological sciences. And yet for some reason, ...
US government launches GMO website, may allow GM crops in some wildlife refuges
While much of the United States government’s recent activity has focused on COVID-19, some agencies are continuing their work in ...
EU could make 25% of its farmland organic by 2030 to combat biodiversity loss
The EU could set a target of one-quarter of agricultural land in Europe to be farmed organically by 2030, with ...
Reversing herbicide resistance? Geneticists uncover source of ‘dreaded’ pigweed’s glyphosate tolerance
Just hearing “pigweed” can cause fear in cotton and soybean farmers, but a Clemson University geneticist and others believe they ...
Facing weak yields and poor weather, Bolivian farmers demand access to new GMO seeds
Facing declining yields and inclement weather, smallholder farmers in Bolivia are asking the government to approve of the use of ...
Animal breeding advances yield disease-resistant chickens to combat hunger in Africa
In many low and middle-income countries, indigenous chickens are an integral part of the farming system and are an important ...
Podcast: ‘Food bullying’ fear of GMO insulin parallels skepticism of biotech crops
Our guest, Heather Barnes, tells parents, “You are doing great.” Having a child with different dietary needs opens the door ...
Precision (plant) medicine: Biotech drug delivery system fights diseases pesticides can’t control
A new method developed by engineers at MIT may offer a starting point for delivering life-saving treatments to plants ravaged ...
States want tighter EPA restrictions on dicamba weedkillers after another year of ‘skyrocketing’ crop damage
On April 28, the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) sent EPA a letter asking that the agency consider ...
Africa looks to build food self-sufficiency as COVID disrupts global supply chain
As Africa grapples with disruptions in the global supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, some see it as an ...
Cumulative pesticide exposure poses little risk to consumers, EU food safety officials find
Risks to consumers from the presence of pesticide residues in food are currently estimated substance by substance. However, a number ...
Ban glyphosate? Environmental chemist debunks ‘flawed’ case against Bayer’s herbicide
Contrary to sensational media reports and class actions, global regulators consider glyphosate not to be carcinogenic. Consequences could be dire ...
Anti-vaxxers and anti-GMO lobby double down on COVID China conspiracy theory
As the World Health Organization warns of a misinformation “infodemic,” anti-science groups around the world are doubling down on a ...
Viewpoint: ‘Monocultures’ unnatural? Mother Nature grows them, too
....[Wh]at’s often in the crosshairs of activists is the philosophy of the planting system — the “dreaded” monoculture. Row crops ...
11 GMO, gene-edited animals and plants that will help us battle hunger and disease
The Genetic modification of foods, organisms, and animals, is very controversial, for quite obvious reasons. And yet, the practice has ...
Ugandan scientists use CRISPR in pioneering research to breed hardier cassava
Ugandan scientists have begun moving gene extracts into cassava cells in a first-of-its-kind research trial using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing ...
Want fewer pandemics? Intensify agriculture to combat hunger—the root cause of disease spread
A number of activists and opinion writers have recently argued that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be traced ...
CRISPR could stop destructive whiteflies from infecting food crops with viral pathogens
Whiteflies are among the most important agricultural pests in the world, yet they have been difficult to genetically manipulate and ...
Does ‘factory farming’ increase our risk of experiencing pandemics?
Some experts have hypothesized that the novel coronavirus made the jump from animals to humans in China’s wet markets, just ...
