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.
Plant virus that combats fungal pathogens may yield low-cost COVID-19 vaccine
A variety of scientists worldwide are changing their primary research focus these days with the aim to bring solutions for ...
FDA has ‘no objections’ to lab-made dairy proteins produced with GMO microbes
Perfect Day, a startup producing milk proteins via microbial fermentation (minus the cows), has secured a coveted ‘no questions/objections’ letter ...
After three lost glyphosate-cancer trials, Bayer investors fear litigation ‘avalanche’ will further harm company’s reputation
Two influential shareholder advisory groups are split on whether investors should support Bayer AG’s management at its upcoming annual meeting, ...
Viruses that ‘turn off’ plant genes could help farmers battle herbicide-resistant weeds
A team of scientists from Rothamsted Research have successfully adapted genetic techniques developed for crop improvement to be used in ...
Can we prevent future pandemics while transforming more forests into farms?
Viruses that jump from animals to people, like the one responsible for COVID-19, will likely become more common as people ...
Podcast: ‘Angry Chef’ Anthony Warner takes on food pseudoscience and COVID-19 misinformation
Anthony Warner, better known as "the Angry Chef," visits the Fuel the Pedal podcast to examine how nutrition science is ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate caused the COVID-19 pandemic? Debunking the latest coronavirus conspiracy
When I saw that Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a ... professor at MIT, wrote an article entitled Connecting the Dots: Glyphosate ...
Drones, big data and AI help China’s farmers weather the coronavirus pandemic
The Covid-19 or coronavirus outbreak has led to an economical standstill worldwide. Agriculture is no exception. China’s agricultural industry is ...
Could GMO microbes, plants yield larger quantities of heart drug digoxin?
Foxglove plants, found in many gardens, are known for the showers of bell-shaped flowers they produce. But plants belonging to ...
Gene from grass-dwelling fungus may help safeguard global wheat production against deadly disease
Wheat scab hits farmers with a double punch. The fungal disease, also known as Fusarium head blight, shrivels grain and ...
How the ‘seductive myth of nature’s goodness’ infiltrated our thinking about food, medicine and even makeup
“Humankind is poised to make monumental decisions,” Alan Levinovitz warns, “about the meaning and importance of natural goodness.” ... His ...
Without steady supply of pesticides, Africa faces food security ‘disaster’ caused by resurgent locust swarms
The locust is considered the most deadly migratory parasite and a single swarm covering a square kilometer can be made ...
Genetically engineered biofuels might be able to compete with gasoline ‘within reach’
Berkeley Laboratory scientists designed simulations to determine how much biofuel is needed for the whole bioproduct extraction process to be ...
Soil fungus could suppress soybean cyst nematodemore—cause of over $1 billion in yield losses every year
The soybean cyst nematode sucks the nutrients out of soybean roots, causing more than $1 billion in soybean yield losses ...
Farm workers fear coronavirus infection as they labor to keep US fed during COVID-19 pandemic
While millions of Americans shelter in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, farmworkers on California’s cool central coast move ...
Woman charged for allegedly selling illegal pesticides on eBay she claimed would kill coronavirus
A Georgia woman made her initial appearance on federal charges of illegally importing and selling an unregistered pesticide, Toamit Virus ...
Synthetic biology will help us feed ourselves with drought-tolerant crops as climate change accelerates
Drought stress has been a long-time limitation to crop production that is being exacerbated by climate change and associated reductions ...
With consumers still fearful of synthetic chemicals, biotech firms spend billions on biopesticide development
Major players like Bayer and start-up companies are spending billions to identify fungi, bacteria and organic compounds in plants that ...
Don’t fear white bread. It’s more nutritious today than it was 200 years ago, new analysis shows
A study comparing historic and modern wheat varieties grown side by side has shown an increase in dietary fiber and ...
Native Australian plant may help develop disease-resistant crops—and a COVID-19 vaccine
A team from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) spearheaded the genome sequencing of an ancient Australian plant years before ...
CRISPR could yield herbicide-resistant, non-GMO soybeans to help combat stubborn weeds
It is often said that a soybean’s maximum yield potential is when it is still in the bag .... [E]verything ...
Pesticide-spraying drones accelerate sustainable farming as governments relax regulations
Move over dogs – drones are a farmer’s new best friend! In just a few years there’s been a huge ...
Temperature-sensing plant molecule could help breed food crops optimized for changing climate
In a paper published in Nature Communications, a group of cell biologists .... reveal the phytochrome B molecule has unexpected ...
Rising food prices amid coronavirus pandemic stress already fragile economies in developing world
As the coronavirus pandemic penetrates more deeply into global supply chains, prices for key staples are starting to soar in ...
Video: World has lots of food, but COVID-19 trade restrictions hamper supermarket restocking efforts
The food industry is struggling to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Restrictions on transportation links that move ...
GMO and organic crops can coexist with minimal risk of contamination, multiple studies confirm
In 2020, the world accommodates nearly 7.8 billion people. By 2050, world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion. With ...
Viewpoint: Contradictory evidence exposes critical flaws in International Agency for Research on Cancer glyphosate assessment
This commentary does not concern itself with the need for, or the value of glyphosate as an agrochemical: rather it ...
