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.
Climate change’s silver lining? Longer growing seasons boost farm productivity in some regions
Depending on your side of the aisle, climate change either elicits doomsday anxiety or unabashed skepticism. Jason Hubbart, director of ...
Infographic: GMO crops ‘wreck’ the environment, human health? Latest evidence says otherwise
"GMOs are not saving farmers money, they're not producing higher yields, and perhaps most significantly they're wrecking the environment and ...
KFC tests Beyond Meat wings, nuggets to size up demand for plant-based chicken
Kentucky Fried Chicken on [August 26] said it plans to start testing Beyond Meat chicken nuggets and boneless wings this ...
New biosensor technology may help breed plants more resilient to harsh environments
Researchers have developed a method with which they can further investigate an important messenger substance in plants -- phosphatidic acid ...
Fine-tuning cocoa yields chocolate with richer flavor, aroma
Just as we have seen an increase in the number of microbreweries making specialty beers, the market for chocolate has ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide exposure could harm ground-nesting bees, study suggests
In a first-ever study investigating the risk of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground-nesting bees, University of Guelph researchers have discovered at ...
EU urges member states to ban insecticide chlorpyrifos, citing potential threat to children’s health
The European Commission will put forward a proposal to EU countries not to renew the license for the pesticide chlorpyrifos ...
Lessons learned from GMOs: How lab-grown meat can avoid crop biotech’s controversial legacy
This article discusses the choices and strategies that can hasten or delay the adoption of novel food technologies. We start ...
Meat wars: Cattle industry fears dwindling sales as Impossible, Beyond burger popularity grows
For decades, veggie burgers were the token offering to vegans at the backyard barbecue, and Tofurky was the Thanksgiving benediction ...
Forest biotech scientists lobby against GMO tree ban to promote sustainable forestry
A group of leading forest biotechnology scientists from around the world call for the reassessment of all sustainable forestry certification ...
French President Emmanuel Macron challenges legality of town’s glyphosate weed killer ban
French President Emmanuel Macron told a mayor from Brittany who ordered a ban on the use of pesticides near his ...
CRISPR gene editing speeds efforts to breed disease-resistant wheat, cut nitrogen pollution
Researchers from around the globe gathered in Saskatoon [in August], focused on making wheat more efficient and sustainable using the ...
Eliminating photosynthesis ‘bottleneck’ could boost crop yields by 10%
Scientists have found how to relieve a bottleneck in the process by which plants transform sunlight into food, which may ...
‘Severe blow’ to Irish agriculture: Regulators reject farmers’ request to use neonicotinoid insecticides
The failure to grant a derogation for the use of Redigo Deter seed dressing – which contains the neonicotinoid clothianidin ...
Battle over cancer warning label, glyphosate ban could complicate Roundup lawsuit settlement
Bayer AG is in mediation to potentially settle thousands of U.S. lawsuits claiming that the company’s Roundup weed killer causes ...
Off-patent GMO Bt corn could slash seed costs for farmers, boost crop yields
Extremely low-cost and high-yield Bt corn? Off-patent, generic Bt corn is rapidly approaching farmland and the price differential might cause ...
Bacteria inoculate crops against salty soil, potentially bringing unworkable farmland back to life
[S]cientists have used bacteria found in the roots of salt-tolerant plants to successfully inoculate alfalfa plants against overly salty soil ...
Crops engineered to destroy infected cells could fight off deadly diseases
Hiding inside each plant cell, protein complexes encoded by disease resistance genes are like sleeping armies, waking up and activating ...
Gene-silencing biopesticide targets harmful insects without threatening pollinators
A natural, sustainable alternative to pesticides that targets specific pests, without harming beneficial pollinators such as honeybees, is being developed ...
Non-GMO product demand surges while consumer biotech knowledge remains low, survey shows
The proportion of shoppers shunning genetically modified foods has tripled over the past decade, according to The Hartman Group, Bellevue, ...
20 French mayors ban glyphosate, spurring new legal battle over Bayer’s controversial weed killer
Some 20 French mayors have banned glyphosate from their municipalities, defying the government, which is now taking legal action to ...
Viewpoint: Want to fight climate change? Embrace GMOs, don’t ban them
The fight against climate change has become one of the most widely discussed topics in the UK and globally. And ...
GMO crops cover 191 million hectares worldwide—113-fold increase since 1996
Biotechnology can be used to develop stress-tolerant and more nutritious crop varieties to protect natural resources and human health. Each ...
CRISPR-edited wheat resists humidity damage, could yield higher quality flour
Scientists have created a rain-resistant wheat variety using genome-editing technology, a breakthrough that could lead to the development of higher-quality ...
Smartphone app could help banana growers spot major diseases before they strike
This work is a step towards creating a satellite-powered, globally connected network to control disease and pest outbreaks ...
Dr. Harriet Hall: National Geographic natural foods book ‘unscientific, and even dangerous’
The National Geographic store proclaims, “This authoritative guide to the foods, herbs, spices, essential oils, and other natural substances that ...
GMO Bt cowpea could save Nigeria millions in crop imports annually
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) says Nigeria can save billions of naira if it cuts down on its importation ...
