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.
Going vegetarian might boost your health, but probably won’t slow climate change
It pays to be a picky eater—at least, when it comes to meat. A study published ....in Scientific Reports suggests ...
Thailand, home to early crop biotech research, proposes strict GMO safety, labeling rules
Thailand has drafted a new set of regulations for comments, targeting food and food products containing or consisting of genetically ...
UK aquaculture researchers welcome Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pro-GMO, CRISPR stance as Brexit proceeds
Some of the most progressive researchers in the UK’s aquaculture biotechnology sphere have welcomed Boris Johnson’s pledge to support the ...
Viewpoint: Biologist Tyrone Hayes, author of suspect atrazine weed killer study, nominated for EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel
Comments opened on the recent EPA nominations to serve on the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) .... The name at number ...
India won’t ban glyphosate to stop illegal planting of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops
The government is unlikely to put a ban on the controversial herbicide glyphosate as there is no proven record to ...
GMO Impossible burger headed for grocery stores. Here’s the nutrition facts you should know
Having jumped all the appropriate FDA hurdles to ensure safety, the Impossible Burger in its uncooked form is coming to ...
Banana-destroying fungus hits South America. Is genetic engineering the solution?
A fungus that has wreaked havoc on banana plantations in the Eastern Hemisphere has, despite years of preventative efforts, arrived ...
Monsanto, GMOs and journalism ethics: Science writer Tamar Haspel responds to HuffPost attack on her work
[On August 6], HuffPost published a hit piece about me. It was about conflicts of interest, and I think it’s ...
Acute exposure to controversial insecticide sulfoxaflor doesn’t impact bee learning, study shows
Systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids and sulfoximines can be present in the nectar and pollen of treated crops, through which ...
Glyphosate label war escalates: Spurning EPA objections, California keeps cancer Prop. 65 warning on herbicide
California has no plans to change its rule that certain products containing the herbicide glyphosate require warnings to consumers that ...
Viewpoint: Eating less meat, boosting crop yields will help prevent famine as climate changes
Humanity is on a collision course with nature. Already 72% of the global ice-free land surface is dedicated to supporting ...
Viewpoint: Eating organic is a ‘personal choice,’ but pricier produce won’t make you healthier
Many folks automatically assume that organic equals healthier. But have you ever wondered if the product you're most likely paying ...
‘Humanity’s exploitation’ of land hastens climate change, United Nations’ IPCC says
[August 8] brings yet another devastating report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this time outlining how humanity’s ...
Roundup on trial: Glyphosate-cancer settlement talks progress, but report of an $8 billion payout is ‘pure fiction’
Bayer AG is proposing to pay as much as $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 U.S. lawsuits alleging its ...
Will Beyond, Impossible burgers mark the downfall of ‘real’ beef?
There’s a famous Gandhi aphorism about how movements progress: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they ...
Viewpoint: Afraid of GMOs, CRISPR? Here’s the science that could change your mind
Scientists can do some amazing things with genes, from saving papayas from extinction, to making apples last longer before turning ...
Anti-GMOers join with anti-vaxxers to promote myth that glyphosate causes autism
Another one of those pseudoscientific tropes from the anti-vaccine religion has reared its ugly Bigfoot head – glyphosate causes autism. And, of course, the anti-vaxxers believe ...
Viewpoint: Why GMOs? 1950s farming technology cannot feed the world in 2050
Up and down the aisles of the grocery store, there are an overwhelming number of packages that are labeled with ...
New Zealand climate group says anti-GMO laws hinder development of sustainable technologies
AgResearch says it is working on whether its genetically modified ryegrass could move to NZ based field and animal nutrition ...
Food fight: Plant-based burgers stir debate over claims of nutritional advantages versus beef
Plant-based burger makers say their products are better for the planet than beef. Whether they are better for consumers’ health ...
As glyphosate—cancer legal battle intensifies, Bayer faces questions whether it needs to split up to survive
The glyphosate lawsuits—and the political backlash—stem from a finding by a division of the World Health Organisation, which said in ...
EPA blocks California from ‘misleadingly’ labeling glyphosate as ‘known to cause cancer,’ stating herbicide ‘does not pose a cancer risk’
Environmental Protection Agency News Release EPA Takes Action to Provide Accurate Risk Information to Consumers, Stop False Labeling on Products ...
Balance of Nature: Ecology’s enduring myth debunked
Strolling across his animated kingdom—Pride Rock in the distance—Mufasa explains to his young son Simba: “Everything you see exists together, ...
Nigerian farmer: ‘Give us the chance to use agricultural biotech’
African farmers must be given the opportunity to use genetically modified (GM) seeds as the sure way to enhance agricultural ...
Agricultural industry split over prospects of government not regulating gene editing as part of reform of biotechnology regulations
Crop developers say USDA’s effort to streamline its regulation of biotech crops will still slow the commercialization of many gene-edited ...
Activist group Friends of the Earth study reports farms 48 times more toxic than 25 years ago, blames neonicotinoids
[T]he United States’ agricultural landscape is 48 times more toxic to insects than it was 25 years ago. Per a ...
140+ Mexican scientists urge president not to issue decree pushed by ‘activists, painters and chefs’ banning GMO research
Members of the academic community related to biotechnology, bioengineering, genomics and related disciplines express their concern about the possibility of ...
