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.
Vietnam’s glyphosate ban: Beginning of a dangerous global trend?
Vietnam’s decision to ban farmers from using glyphosate is troubling in three ways: it appears to rely on decisions set ...
CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna: Gene-edited foods could hit stores by 2024
While ethicists debate the applications of blockbuster gene-editing tool Crispr in human healthcare, an inventor of the tool believes it has ...
Viewpoint: GMOs are an overlooked but consequential solution to climate change
GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are not only a lot less scary than pop culture would lead you to believe ...
Naturally mutating corn pollen genes may lead the way to higher-yielding crops
Pollen genes mutate naturally in only some strains of corn, according to Rutgers-led research that helps explain the genetic instability ...
Microbial biofertilizer could boost sustainable farming as food demand booms
Agriculture is facing tough challenges in the years ahead, including a rising world population and arable land and water becoming ...
Lab-grown meat startups see profitable future in Canada
Canadian companies plan to serve up chicken, beef burgers and mouse-meat cat treats in the coming years, all without the ...
Drought, neonicotinoid insecticide ban cut EU’s canola yields 18 percent, USDA reports
The European Union is picking a good time to produce its second straight subpar rapeseed crop. The United States Department ...
Food companies pursue ‘glyphosate free’ certification as Roundup-cancer legal battle rages
Companies are increasingly enrolling in a voluntary certification program that provides glyphosate-free labels for their products, as consumers grow more wary of ...
New model uncovers possible mechanism behind Varroa mite’s assault on honey bees
The association between the deformed wing virus and the parasitic mite Varroa destructor has been identified as a major cause of worldwide ...
First lab-grown burger may cost $50 at anticipated 2020 restaurant debut
On April 15, Bruce Friedrich ascended a stage in Vancouver, Canada to give a TED Talk to a packed room ...
CRISPR-edited wheat could cut China’s toxic weed killer use
Chinese farmers are facing worsening problems with jointed goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii) – a close relative to wheat – growing in ...
Pakistan announces field trials of 85 GMO pest-resistant Bt cotton varieties
The Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) has announced that 93 new cotton varieties will undergo National Coordinated Varietal Trials (NCVT) in four ...
Viewpoint: Roundup on trial—speculative glyphosate-cancer lawsuits based on ‘junk science’
“The art of junk science is to brush away just enough detail to reach desired conclusions, while preserving enough to ...
Biotech firms rush to enter CRISPR crop market to meet global food demand
Agriculture technology (“agtech”) companies of all sizes are vying to enter commercial food markets. [In March] when news broke about ...
‘Edible insects’ boost food sustainability, but will consumers eat BBQ-flavored bugs?
There is an increasing range of insect-based products, such as whole/flour, snacks, health bars, pasta, pasta sauce and burgers. Edible ...
Newly discovered ‘gene conversion’ mechanism could lead to high-yielding wheat
When it comes to breeding better wheat varieties....we seek to introduce desirable genes that increase yield, [but] these can come ...
CRISPR-edited ‘super plants’ might be our best chance to slow climate change
If this were a film about humanity’s last hope before climate change wiped us out, Hollywood would be accused of ...
Drought and pollution: How do thirsty plants impact air quality?
[P]lants can both help create and cleanse one dangerous air pollutant: ground-level ozone, which causes breathing problems and exacerbates lung ...
High production costs, regulation: Obstacles keeping lab-grown meat off our plates
The thought I had when the $100 chicken nugget hit my expectant tongue was the one cartoon villains have when ...
Engineered ‘self-limiting’ insect could suppress soybean looper, ‘exponential’ threat to US crops
Oxitec Ltd., a UK-based biotechnology company that pioneered the use of biologically-engineered insects to control disease-spreading mosquitoes and crop-destroying agricultural ...
Viewpoint: Biotech industry should rebuild EU’s trust in science to foster farming innovation
The global environmental challenges are changing too fast and we therefore need speedy reactions too, including innovative plant breeding technologies ...
Domestication ‘reboot’: CRISPR gene editing turns wild plants into desirable fruits and vegetables
Early in the 20th century, a strange tomato plant took root in the northeastern United States. Because of a random ...
Fungus-resistant hazelnuts illustrate how genetic modification safeguards our food supply
Ordu is a picturesque city between the mountains and the Black Sea, where a quarter of the world’s hazelnuts grow ...
Glyphosate trial: Text messages, emails reveal Monsanto’s ‘cozy’ relationship with EPA, plaintiffs’ lawyer argues
As the trial over the world’s most widely used herbicide and its connection to a California couple’s cancer stretches into ...
High organic food consumption linked to ‘strong nutritional, environmental benefits,’ study claims
The aim of this study, based on observational data, was to compare some sustainability features of diets from consumers with ...
China’s lengthy GMO crop approval process cuts US agriculture profits $5 billion over five years
China’s approval process for biotech crops is beset by regulatory hurdles and delays that have cost U.S. companies billions of ...
‘Bee safe’ pesticides that replaced neonicotinoids may harm pollinators, activist-funded study finds
New pesticides regarded as “bee safe” could actually be causing harm to these vital pollinators when combined with other chemicals ...
