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.
Suspected Fusarium wilt infection in Colombia threatens global banana supply, but fungus-resistant GMO fruit on the horizon
In a long-feared development, an extremely damaging disease of bananas has apparently reached Latin America. Late last week, the Colombian ...
Bayer trial: Judge may cut $2 billion glyphosate-cancer damages to $250 million
A California judge will slash a $2 billion judgment against Bayer AG, which had been awarded to a couple who ...
GMO plants that produce industrial proteins could cut cost of medicines, consumer goods
Imagine if plants could be engineered to produce vaccines, pharmaceuticals, proteins and enzymes for medical, agricultural and industrial applications at ...
Dessert of the future? This $20 a pint ice cream made with GMO yeast sells out in hours
Agri-tech start-up Perfect Day released a line of real ice cream made with lab-grown dairy that costs $20 a pint ...
Engineered plants with deeper roots could store more CO2, help slow climate change
Hidden underground networks of plant roots snake through the earth foraging for nutrients and water, similar to a worm searching ...
Organic produce consumption lowers pregnant women’s exposure to some pesticides, small study suggests
Organic versus conventional foods: are they really better for people’s health? Are all organic foods created equal, and if not, ...
‘Industrial-scale’ beekeeping doesn’t boost disease prevalence in honeybee colonies, study shows
It is generally thought that the intensification of farming will result in higher disease prevalences, although there is little specific ...
GMO scare 2.0? ‘Arduous’ regulation may increase public distrust of CRISPR-edited crops
Modern biotechnology (transgenesis and gene editing) helps achieve an increase in food production without the need for more land area for agriculture ...
New test accurately estimates bee exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, study claims
Bee populations are declining, and neonicotinoid pesticides continue to be investigated — and in some cases banned — because of ...
Viewpoint: We need GMO, CRISPR-edited crops to help feed 10 billion people
If we want to feed 10 billion people by 2050, in a world beset by rising temperatures and scarcer water ...
Farming without pesticides could double crop losses, boost global food prices, UK economist warns
The average UK family grocery bill could increase by more than [$977] over the course of a year without the ...
As technology ‘wipes out’ traditional work, biotech investment could revitalize rural America
Cow-free burgers are now all the rage — after Beyond Meats’ recent IPO, shares rose 163% on the first day ...
Vermont: First US state to mandate its own GMO crop regulations
On June 17, 2019, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed a new law, which creates a committee to review new genetically-engineered ...
Mexico’s self-fertilizing corn could be worth millions. Will village where it grows share in the profits?
In a 1979 visit to Totontepec, a small town in Oaxaca, Mexico, naturalist Thomas Boone Hallberg marveled at the local ...
Demand for sustainable farming fuels growth of ‘GMO-free’ gene silencing tools to combat pests
Since its discovery more than 20 years ago, RNA interference (RNAi) has been extensively used in crop protection platforms. So ...
No Bee Armageddon: US honeybee colony numbers stable for 25 years. Thank capitalism?
Warnings of an impending "bee apocalypse" became widespread in 2006, after some commercial beekeepers reported the mass disappearance of worker ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO movement’s romanticized notions of ‘natural food’ won’t solve global nutrition challenges
Food science and farm technologies today provide Americans with an unprecedented abundance of safe, healthy and nutritious food. Yet, consumers ...
Bayer lawsuit: Judge cuts punitive damages in glyphosate-cancer case from $75 million to $20 million
A federal judge on [July 15] slashed a damages award Bayer AG owed a California man who blamed Roundup weed ...
Crops engineered to stay green longer could produce more food for growing global population
A team of Clemson University scientists has achieved a breakthrough in the genetics of senescence in cereal crops with the ...
1/3 of the world’s soil is degraded. But technology can bring our farmland ‘back to life’
In Iowa they call it “black gold” – a fertile blanket covering the landlocked Midwestern state. Thousands of years of ...
EU ‘probably won’t’ re-approve Bayer’s glyphosate weed killer after 2022, German agriculture minister says
German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner said glyphosate herbicide probably won’t have enough support to gain re-authorization for use in the ...
Scientists urge speedy introduction of GMOs to help Ghana cut food imports
As Ghana’s government rolls out a master plan to drastically cut down on food imports, scientists are urging the speedy ...
CRISPR immunizes potato against plant viruses, cutting production costs of globally important food crop
Society and the legislative authorities are often cynical about the presence of [transgenes] in GMOs. However, more advanced plant breeding ...
If Bayer settles glyphosate-cancer lawsuits, final costs could range from $2.5-$20 billion
There’s a $2.5 billion question hanging over Bayer AG. Or perhaps a $20 billion question, depending on who you ask ...
Brazilian farmers sue Bayer to reclaim $151 million in royalties on GMO cotton
Brazilian cotton producers in the state of Mato Grosso on [July 11] sued Bayer AG, seeking to cancel the chemical ...
Everything you should know about India’s pro-GMO farmers defying ban on biotech crops
With a few Haryana farmers symbolically defying a government restriction against sowing banned [GMO] Cotton in Hisar, and the government ...
Global farming trends put pollinators at risk, threaten food security, study claims
A multinational team of researchers has identified countries where agriculture’s increasing dependence on pollination, coupled with a lack of crop ...
