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.
Virus-resistant wheat could aid UK farmers denied access to neonicotinoid insecticides
RAGT Seeds is to launch a winter wheat variety with a high level of resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus ...
Podcast: Turning mushrooms into bacon (and other cool stuff) to boost sustainability
Today John Cumbers [founder and CEO of SynBioBeta] talks with Eben Bayer, CEO and Co-Founder of the biomaterials company Ecovative ...
Nitrates in deli meat dangerous? Food labels and cancer claims don’t tell the whole story
NPR just ran a scare piece called "Duped In The Deli Aisle? 'No Nitrates Added' Labels Are Often Misleading," which ...
Funnel web spider venom kills a human in an hour—can we use it to battle deadly honeybee pests?
A bite from a funnel web spider delivers neurotoxins that can kill an adult in hours, or a child in ...
Hormel, Kellogg launch ‘non-GMO’ plant-based meats to compete with Beyond, Impossible
Hormel said [September 4] it will launch its own plant-based meat brand, following Kellogg’s announcement of a similar addition to ...
Plant geneticist Kevin Folta: Scientific American’s rewritten anti-GMO article a ‘lesser abomination’
The Scientific American article about "dying broccoli" and "toxic corn" drew wide criticism for its unreferenced and outright false indictment ...
Glyphosate-cancer battle escalates as Germany aims to ban Roundup after 2023
Angela Merkel’s government aims to phase out herbicides containing glyphosate by the end of 2023, a move that could generate ...
US world leader in GMO research, cultivation—growing 75 million hectares in 2018
The US remains as the top producer of biotech crops in 2018, according to the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM ...
Cloning tool spots ‘foreign DNA,’ minimizes off-target changes with CRISPR gene editing
Researchers from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain and Durham University in the UK developed a tried and tested cloning system ...
Viewpoint: Myth debunked—GM crops haven’t radically changed our food supply
[In August] South Australia announced it would be lifting its ban on the growth of genetically modified organisms (GMO) ...
EU farmers ‘fed up’ with rapeseed as neonicotinoid insecticide ban, dry weather cripple crop yields
Rapeseed, easily spotted with its bright yellow flowers in summer, is used for meal and oil in products ranging from ...
Can we stop stupid politics from ruining carbon farming?
It seems like every Democratic presidential candidate wants to get farmers sucking carbon out of the air and sticking it ...
Should your dog eat ‘paleo’ kibble? How misleading pet food labels fool consumers
Zealotry about pet food is every bit as self-satisfied as a Food Babe mantra. Since food is the new religion, ...
Climate change boosted banana production for 60 years, but hotter temperatures could finally cut yield gains
Climate change could negatively impact banana cultivation in some of the world’s most important producing and exporting countries, a study ...
Viewpoint: Developing world farmers see GMO crop adoption as path to prosperity
Farmers on the frontiers of prosperity are choosing GM seeds. They’re embracing this technology so much that 54 percent of ...
Pollen diversity boosts honeybee defenses against parasites, insecticides, long-distance transport
A new study provides valuable insights into pollen abundance and diversity available to honeybee colonies employed in five major pollinator-dependent ...
Virus-resistant GMO pinto bean could cut crop losses in Brazil by 40% or more
Brazilian farms are expected to begin planting a transgenic [pinto] bean resistant to the main crop disease in October, and ...
General Mills urges suppliers to cut glyphosate use, citing growing consumer pesticide fears
General Mills, like all companies, needs happy and satisfied customers. That’s why it’s asking suppliers, farmers who produce oats, wheat, ...
Don’t go vegan? Missing nutrients from meat could be bad for your brain
The momentum behind a move to plant-based and vegan diets for the good of the planet is commendable, but risks ...
DNA sequencing technique spots wheat pathogens, and diseases-fighting microbes to stop them
Plant diseases, especially those caused by fungal pathogens, jeopardize global crop biosecurity and preventing them requires rapid detection and identification ...
Bayer faces dozens of potentially costly glyphosate-cancer lawsuits in Hawaii
Dozens of lawsuits potentially worth tens of millions of dollars in damages are in the works in Hawaii targeting Monsanto ...
GMO ryegrass could help mitigate climate change, but research, regulatory hurdles remain
AgResearch principal scientist Dr Greg Bryan recently returned from the United States where the Crown Research Institute is conducting field ...
Viewpoint: Brazilian farmers destroy the Amazon? Here’s what Greenpeace isn’t telling you
In 2016, the Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen flew over the Amazon forest with the head of Greenpeace Brazil as part ...
GM cassava research progresses in Uganda
Ugandan researchers are requesting permission to create permanent demonstration gardens of the improved crops ...
Consumer Reports vs Impossible Foods: Are plant-based GMO burgers safe?
Plant-based burgers have exploded in popularity over the last year, with dozens of fast food restaurants and grocery stores offering ...
French town’s failed pesticide ban reignites national campaign against Bayer’s Roundup weed killer
Daniel Cueff’s failed crusade to ban pesticides in his tiny Breton village lays bare the deep political contradictions at the ...
Viewpoint: Eat 1,500 strawberries in one sitting—and pesticides still won’t harm you
Can you identify which of the following is NOT true about pesticides? A: Pesticides are extremely dangerous to humans. B: ...
