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.
Natural pest-control market could hit $10 billion by 2025, as farmers seek new tools to battle pesticide-tolerant bugs
For decades, Adam Baldwin’s family used chemicals with multisyllabic names to keep caterpillars such as earworms and podworms from chomping ...
EPA to decide the future of dicamba, neonicotinoids and other controversial pesticides in 2020
The EPA this year will deliver important decisions to U.S. agriculture, including on chlorpyrifos, glyphosate, the neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, atrazine and ...
Luxembourg outlines plan to ban glyphosate weed killer in January 2021
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is in the process of becoming the first country to ban the use of the ...
Bayer close to settling more than 75,000 glyphosate-cancer lawsuits, mediator says
Bayer AG’s settlement of cancer lawsuits over its Roundup weed-killer may be only weeks away and is likely to cover ...
Improved seeds key to sustainable food security, African plant breeders say
Strategies now being rolled out to ensure food security on the African continent are unsustainable, according to the African Plant ...
Using GMO technology to restore the blight-devastated American chestnut: State University of New York awarded breakthrough $3.2 million Templeton Foundation grant
[The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry] has received its largest-ever charitable gift, $3.2 million, ...
Pushback against studies challenging health risks of meat consumption highlights industry influence on nutrition research
It’s almost unheard of for medical journals to get blowback for studies before the data are published. But that’s what ...
CRISPR gene editing yields corn resistant to widely used sulfonylurea herbicide, study shows
Researchers from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other institutions reported precise based editing of maize genes using CRISPR-Cas9, leading ...
EU Green Party aims to halve synthetic pesticide use by 2025, phase it out completely in 15 years
The EU’s European Green Deal drafters may have succeeded in dodging some of the most immediately contentious issues in the ...
10 things you should know about Impossible Foods’ new GMO plant-based ‘pork’
Here comes the other faux white meat. Impossible Foods, the brand behind [2018's] Impossible Burger 2.0 craze, captivated the attention ...
How good storytelling can help consumers see the benefits of GMOs, synthetic biology
Synthetic biology is a field full of exciting stories .... I asked Karl Schmieder, a seasoned communications and strategy consultant ...
Plant growth ‘on/off’ switch could help safeguard crop yields as farmers battle climate change
New research from UC Riverside identifies a protein that controls plant growth -- good news for an era in which ...
Viewpoint: ‘Conspiracy theorist’ Zen Honeycutt spins tall tales about GMOs, glyphosate weed killer on CBS Los Angeles
If the media has a question about biomedical science, one would assume that a scientist or doctor would be the ...
Biotech marijuana: Israeli startups aim to breed cannabis plant that’s easier to cultivate
Israeli medical cannabis company Cann10 has signed an agreement to team up with Israeli biotech company Epigenetics to form Cann10 ...
EU bans Bayer neonicotinoid insecticide thiacloprid, citing threat to human reproductive health, bees
The European Commission decided on [Jan. 13] not to renew approval for a pesticide linked to harming bees, effectively banning ...
With 92% of U.S. corn coming from GMO plants, farmers see yield boom despite severe flooding
Under pressure from soggy fields, late planting and bouts of early winter weather, American corn and soy plants proved resilient ...
Eat less meat to cut CO2 emissions? That may not make your diet climate friendly, study shows
In global diets, meat is not necessarily the main driver of dietary carbon emissions, finds a new study published in ...
Bayer attorney says televising upcoming glyphosate-cancer trial could threaten Monsanto employees’ safety
Letting TV cameras into a trial over the safety of Roundup herbicide might put witnesses and employees at Bayer AG’s ...
Monsanto may seek bankruptcy protection without favorable deal in glyphosate litigation settlement talks, Bayer lawyers warn
Bayer AG’s settlement talks over tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer are heating up as ...
EPA poised to approve new Bt-based insecticide Bta ABTS 1857 to help beekeepers battle destructive wax moth pest
EPA is proposing to register a pesticide product containing Bacillus thuringiensis .... to prevent and control wax moths in beehives ...
France’s new pesticide-free zones threaten country’s vineyards, winegrowers say
The idea of so-called pesticide-free zones (or non-treatment zones) has gradually emerged as a solution to protect against the harmful ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bee-pocalypse’—one of the 2010s biggest overblown moral panics
Human beings are anxious creatures. We worry about things that might kill us. We worry about things that might kill ...
Pro-GMO documentary ‘Food Evolution’ censored in France?
In a confidential report, the cinematographic distribution company 2iFilms recounts its misadventures concerning the broadcasting of the documentary Food Evolution ...
Succulents for dinner? Heat-tolerant ‘sea beans’ may become important food source as climate change accelerates
In southern Israel’s stifling heat, rows of salicornia, commonly known as sea asparagus or sea beans, grow under translucent tarps, ...
Losing glyphosate herbicides would be ‘major blow’ to sustainable farming, weed scientist argues
Glyphosate, the herbicide that has revolutionized weed control since its introduction in 1974, faces steadily increasing restrictions and in some ...
US grocery stores roll out private label plant-based beef to compete with Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods
Cashing in on rising demand for imitation meat, major retailers including Kroger and Walmart recently began to carry Beyond Meat’s ...
Tomato plants kill their own cells to fight infection
When a plant senses an invading pathogen, it [can sacrifice] host cells to the pathogen. This is a tightly controlled ...
