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.
Expensive is healthier? How premium organic food prices mislead shoppers
Organic food and organic farming have a really strong association with being “better.” But not everyone means the same thing ...
Bayer to investigate allegation Monsanto collected data of influential journalists, politicians to influence their views on pesticides
Bayer said on [May 12] it was hiring an external law firm to investigate French media complaints that Monsanto, the ...
Viewpoint: Lab-grown meat may hinder effort to develop a ‘just food future’
At the 2019 Milken Global Conference, which brings together business and public policy leaders to explore how market-based solutions could ...
Vermont Senate approves bill restricting neonicotinoid insecticide use, ‘small step’ towards outright ban
Senators gave preliminary approval .... to a bill that would restrict the use of a class of pesticides considered to ...
French President Macron pledges glyphosate ban, halving of pesticide use by 2025 as EU election nears
Emmanuel Macron’s EU election campaign, dubbed Renaissance, finally released its manifesto for the European election taking place later [in May 2019] ...
Oregon bill would let farmers sue biotech firms if GMO crops ‘contaminate’ their fields
The Oregon Legislature is considering a bill that would let farmers sue companies, such as Bayer and Syngenta, that hold ...
Podcast: Burger King’s ‘Impossible’ Whopper—’breakout moment’ for plant-based meat?
The Whopper is an icon of American culture. But the Whopper is getting a complete overhaul — and when we ...
Ethos Chocolate, candy brand that hypes its GMO ingredients, back by popular demand
In its debut in February, the debut of Ethos Chocolate made a big, wonderful, delicious splash — the initial batch of 10,000 ...
Bayer sues former employee for allegedly sharing pesticide trade secrets with competitor
A former scientist at Bayer CropScience shared confidential information with his new employer, which was used to develop commercial biopesticide ...
UK issues emergency use exemption for neonicotinoid insecticide to prevent virus spread in sugar beets
An 120-day emergency authorization has been granted for the use of an insecticide for the control of peach–potato aphids to ...
Nigeria approves two GMO cotton varieties anticipated to boost production from 60,000 to 150,000 tons
Nigeria approved two genetically modified varieties of cotton for use by the nation’s farmers to help boost supply to its ...
Toxic chemicals in your food? How regulation, technological innovation protect consumers from pesticides
Understanding the magnitude and impact of dietary pesticide exposures is a concern for some consumers. However, the ability of consumers ...
Viewpoint: Modern farming, economic growth don’t cause biodiversity decline—they prevent it
Driven perhaps by envy at the attention that climate change is getting, and ambition to set up a great new ...
Higher CO2 emissions, pesticide use raise doubts about sustainability of organic wine
The popularity of organic food and wine is not going away anytime soon. Yet as the European viticultural debate increasingly ...
Video: Fine-tuning beneficial mutations breeds higher yielding tomatoes
Unexpected interactions between mutations can be a thorn in the side for plant breeders, especially when they’re trying to promote ...
When lab-grown meat hits the market, success will hinge on consumer preference, not price
Demand for plant-based options, such as the Impossible Burger, is rising quicker than companies can keep up with. However, for those ...
Washington Post dietitian: Environmental Working Group, activists irresponsibly fan fears by citing ‘scary-sounding’ but harmless chemicals in food
Would you worry if you knew your food contained sucrose octanoate esters or tocopherols? They might sound frightening, but don’t ...
May election offers Europe chance to embrace gene editing and ‘smart agriculture,’ boost sustainable farming
On May 26, Europeans will be able to vote to elect new MEPs. This election will no doubt provide an ...
Roundup on trial: Cancer cases plateaued while glyphosate use exploded, Bayer expert witness testifies
Alva Pilliod’s lymphoma likely had no known cause, but his singularly abnormal immune system allowed it to flourish, an oncologist ...
‘Silent crisis’? UN report warns agriculture, overfishing accelerate biodiversity declines
The world's most comprehensive, and damning, report on the state of nature [was released May 6] in Paris. The UN's ...
Consumers embrace non-GMO products in attempt to manage health through food choices
.... [A]bout a quarter of adults are trying to manage a health or medical condition through their food and beverage ...
Patricia Nanteza is Uganda’s agricultural biotechnology communications queen
You go to the annual National Agricultural Show in Jinja and she is there. You go to the Harvest Money ...
As IARC glyphosate-cancer finding draws more scrutiny, WHO rebukes agency for ‘undermining’ other UN chemical safety assessments
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was once a serious, revered organization with the somber task of tackling ...
EPA requests public comment on activist proposal to cut glyphosate tolerance in oats
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking for public feedback on a petition by a national environmental research and advocacy ...
Video: John Innes Centre battles nutrient deficiency with iron-fortified biotech wheat
Iron is an important micro-nutrient, boosting haemoglobin levels in the blood. Many populations and particularly women and children are currently ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s ‘de facto’ GMO crop ban, mandatory labeling scheme ‘hinder innovation’
An excellent new paper from a trio of Danish researchers, two of whom are based out of the University of Copenhagen, argues that the European ...
Steep prices push lab-grown meat makers to pitch products as ‘humane luxuries’
[M]akers of cultured meat, such as Memphis Meats, New Age Meats and Aleph Farms, face several barriers to bringing their ...
