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.
‘Green wave’: Environmentalist gains in EU elections could cut farmer access to key pesticides
The ‘green wave’ which saw environmentalist parties make major gains across the continent in the European elections could threaten the ...
Plant-based meat sales hit $760 million in 2018, but GMO skepticism, nutrition concerns could slow industry’s meteoric rise
Amid soaring U.S. demand for meat substitutes — a market that grew 23 percent in 2018 to exceed $760 million ...
The more biotech science you know, the less you fear GMO crops, study finds
Genetically modified (GM) foods are often met with harsh public opposition, though little research has attempted to understand why this ...
Spider venom and fungi: The next generation of ‘eco-friendly’ biopesticides
The global population is predicted to reach 9.77 billion people by the end of 2050, before peaking at more than ...
As consumers become more and more detached from farming, ignorance about modern agriculture and GMOs grows
“Any farm is completely artificial. Even with organic farms, you strip away all the native vegetation,” says Pamela Ronald, a ...
14 EU nations call for ‘unified’ CRISPR crop regulation to boost sustainable farming
The Netherlands and Estonia are leading a coalition of 14 EU member states calling on the next European Commission to ...
Pesticide-focused Save America’s Pollinators Act overlooks primary threats to bees and other pollinators
Amid the continuing decline of pollinators worldwide, U.S. lawmakers recently revived a perennially struggling bill that aims to save these ...
From lab-grown burgers to 3D printed steak, here’s why alternative meat is mainstream in 2019
As the sustainability agenda rises in the food industry, innovators are increasingly looking at ways of swapping out meat for ...
Following US and Argentina, Brazil approves drought-tolerant, herbicide-resistant soybean
Brazil’s bio-security agency CTNBio has approved a new soybean seed that combines technologies to make it resistant to drought and ...
54% of consumers want sustainable food, survey shows, but knowledge of nutrition, farming lacking
Topics like sustainability, plant-based diets and clean eating seem to permeate news about food, but it turns out they’re not ...
‘Small victory’ for Bayer: Judge says firm can move upcoming glyphosate trials to farm states
In a win for Monsanto following more than $2 billion in cancer-trial losses in California against the company’s popular weed ...
Viewpoint: ‘Toxic’ chemicals fueled post-WWII economic boom in the United States—here’s why that’s a problem
[B]efore [World War II], the vast majority of Americans lived in cities, or they lived on farms. Suddenly, with all ...
Canada’s neonicotinoid insecticide rules haven’t hit farmers, and tighter regulations coming?
Health Canada’s April decisions on three neonicotinoid insecticides won’t change much for growers this year — but it also won’t ...
Irish scientist calls for reopening GMO debate
Award-winning Irish biochemist Dr. Richard Murphy says it’s time to revisit the debate around the use of genetically modified organisms ...
How pink bollworm may evolve resistance to GMO Bt crops
Insect resistant Bt crops are widely grown in many countries all over the world to prevent pest attacks in highly ...
Glyphosate-cancer lawsuits spur development of next-generation weed killers
"Total fear and shock." That's how Andrew Kniss, a weed scientist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, describes the ...
Plant-based Burger King whopper heads to Sweden, sans key GMO ‘Impossible’ ingredient
.... Burger King [began] selling a new plant-based burger in Sweden [on May 23]. [T]he new menu offering [is] “a ...
Viewpoint: Burkina Faso’s declining cotton yields illustrate need for GMO crops
At a forum on biotech crops and the Big Four Agenda at the University of Nairobi on April 24, critics ...
Bayer trial: Judge picks high-profile attorney Ken Feinberg to mediate Roundup-cancer settlement negotiations
A U.S. judge overseeing Roundup-cancer lawsuits against Bayer AG provisionally appointed high-profile mediator Ken Feinberg to lead settlement negotiations over ...
Organic food sales at $48 billion, now almost 6% of food, despite continued decline in market growth rate
Sales of organic food in the U.S. last year totaled a record $47.9 billion — 5.9% higher than 2017, according ...
Vinegar, Epsom salts, Dawn weed killer mix superior ‘organic’ alternatives to synthetic herbicides? ‘Nonsense,’ gardening expert says
You know, the most wonderful thing about social media and the internet is that everything you read there is true! ...
As orange growers battle citrus greening disease with antibiotics, should we fear ‘super bugs’?
A pernicious disease is eating away at Roy Petteway’s orange trees. The bacterial infection, transmitted by a tiny winged insect ...
‘Nature’s pest controllers’: How wasps reduce chemical pesticide use in farming
Scientists have put together a map of the UK's wasp population, showing the distribution of key species. Data recorded by ...
United Nations: Intensive agriculture driving bee declines, threatening global food security
Declining bee populations pose threat to global food security and nutrition FAO urges countries to step up efforts to protect ...
Glyphosate-tainted burgers? Impossible Foods rebuffs Moms Across America’s latest anti-GMO campaign
“Moms Across America” has escalated a year-long campaign against Impossible Foods to push its anti-vaccine, anti-GMO agenda to anyone gullible ...
Open-source gene expression platform could yield more efficient food, biofuel crops
An open-source RNA analysis platform has been successfully used on plant cells for the first time -- a breakthrough that ...
Consumers want to buy from ethical companies, but interest in non-GMO, organic labels dropping, survey shows
A survey conducted by Crestline Custom Promotional Products showed 68.3% of American consumers want to support companies that promote similar ...
