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.
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 ...
Bayer expects widespread use of dicamba in 2020 despite intense legal battle to restrict the weedkiller
Had it proceeded as planned, dicamba-tolerant soybean technology would be receiving rave reviews in 2020. In its four years of ...
COVID-19 nudges us to rethink our approach to the existential threats of our time
The world as we knew it ended a few months ago. What we have now is a seemingly alien muddle ...
GMO success story: South African farmer accused of witchcraft after achieving 1,600% corn yield increase
TELA maize products are transforming livelihoods at [the] household level in Matibidi village, Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Meet Mr ...
South Australia lifts 16-year-old GMO crop cultivation ban after months of political wrangling
South Australia will allow mainland farmers to grow genetically-modified (GM) crops from next season, but councils can apply to remain ...
Fluorescent foliage: Researchers grow glow-in-the-dark plants with help from mushroom DNA
Fans of the "Avatar" movie will have long dreamed of lush jungles teeming with glowing plants. But fluorescent foliage may ...
Bayer takes ‘tougher stance’ in glyphosate-cancer settlement talks amid COVID-19 financial strain
Bayer said the economic downturn and the need to preserve cash means it is taking a tougher stance in talks ...
Coronavirus outbreak fuels surging plant-based meat demand in China
Demand for plant-based protein foods is surging in Asia, suppliers say, as suspicion over possible links between wild animal meat ...
Newly approved 2, 4-D herbicides could help cut crop damage from Bayer’s drift-prone dicamba weedkiller
Farmers and weed control experts continue to monitor the dicamba herbicide situation heading into another growing season. Kevin Bradley, University ...
Viewpoint: Journalism or propaganda? Animal rights group pays UK newspaper The Guardian to bash agriculture
We grew up in an era when the mainstream media reported the news straightforwardly, but now much of it is ...
Kenya pushes GMO cotton farming to meet soaring demand for masks
The Kenyan government has begun distributing genetically modified (GM) and hybrid seeds in a bid to increase cotton production to ...
Organic safer than conventional food? Short toxicology lesson shows why that question makes no sense
Pick just about any newspaper or journal and during the course of a year, one or more articles will be ...
Podcast: Why scientists have an obligation to teach the public about GMOs
Dr. Maha Arujanan is the global coordinator of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and also ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban leaves UK canola farmers with few tools to stop flea beetle resurgence
The bright yellow rapeseed flowers that adorn the British countryside have largely disappeared after crops this season failed. The flaxen ...
Camelina vs. canola: Which GMO crop offers more sustainable source of omega-3 fish oils?
Field trials of a plant genetically modified to produce omega-3 normally sourced from fish oil have shown that it can ...
Viewpoint: Norman Borlaug saved millions of lives, would his critics prefer he hadn’t?
Norman Borlaug is perhaps the most important person in human history whose name and legacy remain largely unknown. A hero ...
Beyond Meat debuts plant-based menu options in China’s just-reopened Starbucks, KFC locations
As China reopens restaurants and cafes, more plant-based "fake" meat products are popping up on menus. On [April 22], Beyond ...
Video: Why gene-edited crops? Examining the nutritional and environmental benefits of CRISPR
As genetic engineering continues to improve our food supply, David Fikes of FMI Foundation explains that humans have always modified ...
Consumers may pay more for lab-grown meat once told about its perceived benefits
A study at Maastricht University claims people are prepared to pay more for lab-grown meat after being told of its ...
Engineering plants to rapidly repair heat damage could preserve crop yields as climate changes
As plants convert sunlight into sugar, their cells are playing with fire. Photosynthesis generates chemical byproducts that can damage the ...
Bugpocalypse? New research challenges widely publicized claims of impending catastrophic insect declines
Drastic declines in insect biomass, abundance, and diversity reported in the literature have raised concerns among scientists and the public ...
Farm groups join lawsuit to support EPA’s glyphosate weedkiller re-approval
Commodity groups, ag retailers and others are seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed in the 9th Circuit Court of ...
Dicamba on trial: Bayer tells federal judges banning drift-prone herbicide would ’cause chaos’ for farmers
As U.S. soybean and cotton farmers work to get their 2020 crops planted, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ...
Gene editing will revolutionize crop breeding in Africa, new paper predicts
Genome editing technology has the potential to revolutionize crop development on the African continent, especially in sub-Sahara Africa, according to ...
Gene editing could cut food additive use and put more nutritious options in supermarkets
[In 2019], Minneapolis-based Calyxt introduced a soybean oil without trans fats for commercial sale. It was the first gene-edited food ...
