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.
Delayed GMO Bt rice approval costs China $12 billion annually, study finds
To maintain self-sufficiency in rice production and national food security, the Chinese government strongly supports research that aims at increasing ...
Viewpoint: Trust experts over activists on GMOs, climate change, vaccines
Science occupies a special place in our society. It is subversive in the sense that it recognizes no authority other ...
Proposed New York chlorpyrifos insecticide ban pits farmers against environmental groups
With California .... agreeing to ban its sale, environmentalists in New York are renewing their call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo ...
Viewpoint: Don’t ‘oversell’ veganism as the only solution to climate change
Meat consumption plays a huge role in global warming, producing nearly 15% of all carbon dioxide emissions, even more than ...
‘Big meat’ vs. scrappy startups: Nestlé, Tyson, Hormel roll out plant-based products to compete with Impossible, Beyond
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, scrappy start-ups that share a penchant for superlatives and a commitment to protecting the environment, ...
Podcast: The ‘what, how and why’ of GMOs, a crash course on genetic engineering
Agricultural scientists Karen Cox of West Virginia University and Dan Lima of Ohio State University offer a crash course on ...
Video: Study vindicating red meat reignites age-old debate over dietary guidelines, conflicts of interest
It's not the first time researcher Bradley Johnston has had the nutrition community up in arms over his work. Johnston, ...
Developing world should curb agricultural antibiotic use to combat drug-resistant bacteria, study warns
The growing appetite for animal protein in developing countries has resulted in a smorgasbord of antibiotic consumption for livestock that ...
Molecular-level insight into virus transmission could help cut $30 billion in annual crop damage
For the first-time we can take a molecular-level look at one of the world's deadliest crop killers. The Luteoviridae are ...
Viewpoint: Legal crusade against Bayer’s Roundup herbicide threatens fish and wildlife
You’ve seen the ads flooding television and social media: “Have you been exposed to weed killer Roundup? If you have ...
How CRISPR could produce tastier wine and beer
Whether it’s grape juice or liquid malt, yeast is essential in converting sugary liquids into alcohol, to produce the final ...
Viewpoint: Ignore the internet food gurus—canola oil probably doesn’t cause Alzheimer’s disease
Food fads make me want to scream, cry, and hide in a cabin in the mountains. MSG is safe. And high ...
Where’d pineapple come from? Study explores the evolution of an ever-popular tropical fruit
Researchers have now gained new insights on how human agriculture helped shape the evolution of pineapple. Led by University of ...
Farmers, scientists face off against activists as New Hampshire mulls neonic insecticide ban
Farmers, lawn service scientists and educators supplied stinging criticism [October 8] of legislation that activists are pursuing to ban the ...
Bayer faces first glyphosate-cancer lawsuit in Australia as US plaintiff count tops 13,400
An Australian farmer has launched a legal case against Bayer AG’s agricultural chemicals unit Monsanto after being diagnosed with a ...
Will Kenya lift its GMO ban as its agriculture falters?
Scientists should now move with urgency to allow for the continuation of research to support applications of biotechnology ...
Pesticide makers drop challenge to California’s proposed chlorpyrifos insecticide ban
Pesticide manufactures on [September 9] agreed to drop challenges to a proposed California ban on sales of a product linked ...
Viewpoint: New EU Parliament should stop ‘shunning science’ and embrace GMOs
The recently elected European Parliament (EP) should bring with it a ray of hope. Hope that Europe will rise to ...
Viewpoint: Controversial red-meat review challenged ‘deeply entrenched’ nutrition advice with strong science
That last food flip-flop made big headlines last week. It was a “remarkable turnabout,” “jarring,” “stunning.” How, it was asked, ...
USDA scientist: Cover crops check soil degradation—major threat to global food security
Visit the typical almond farm in California and you’ll see rows of trees stretching to the horizon, forming an arching ...
Rapeseed farmers benefit from honeybees more than pesticides, French study finds
For European rapeseed farmers, honey bees buzzing around fields may outweigh the benefits of using pesticides to fight insect damage, ...
Viewpoint: Farmers need more than pro-GMO marketing campaigns to earn public trust
If farmers want to shed the stereotypes foisted on them and talk openly to consumers about the realities of agriculture ...
Fungus-treated tomatoes see 65% higher yields in salty soil, greenhouse study shows
Plant scientists in the Middle East have discovered that adding a desert root fungus, Piriformospora indica—first isolated in India—to the ...
Fear of ‘mighty multinationals’ could spur European glyphosate bans despite evidence, EU food safety official says
The world’s most used herbicide is now more of a political football than a weedkiller. Bernhard Url, the head of ...
Viewpoint: Hectoring Americans to go vegan will do ‘almost nothing’ to combat climate change
Eating meat is bad for the climate—or at least that was one of the main conclusions highlighted in a flood ...
AquaBounty will label GMO salmon before 2022 deadline to promote transparency, company says
AquaBounty is planning to preemptively label its genetically modified salmon in the United States in 2020, a company spokesperson told ...
