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.
Consumer-focused CRISPR-edited crops may be key to building public trust in biotech
Gene editing has the potential to change agriculture, but only if consumers believe it’s a beneficial technology....The best way and ...
Viewpoint: Conventional, organic farming advocates should stop fighting and focus on feeding world’s growing population
For years, discussions about the future of the agricultural industry have converged on the arbitrary yet consequential date of 2050, ...
Viewpoint: EU neonicotinoid insecticide restrictions could ‘disrupt global trade flows’
Farmers and the agri-chemical industry are criticizing the European Parliament for seeking to export the EU’s stringent standards on pesticides ...
Many farmers endorse glyphosate as safe weed killer while Bayer battles Roundup-cancer lawsuits
Farmers are standing by Bayer AG’s Roundup herbicide despite rulings from two juries that the world’s most widely used weedkiller caused ...
Viewpoint: GMO trees could save America’s ‘decimated’ citrus industry from bacterial ‘plague’
Farmers in the major U.S. citrus-producing regions—Florida, California, Texas and Arizona, in particular—are facing a plague of epic proportions. Oranges ...
GM disease-resistant wheat closer to commercialization after successful field trial
A joint venture project between the [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation] and a US foundation has had recent success ...
Do Roundup Ready GMO crops harm Monarch butterflies? Ecologists weigh in as new data comes to light
Monarch butterfly populations have been declining since the 1990s, and several studies have linked this to the proliferation of crops ...
Divided agriculture sector spars over GMOs as Tasmania mulls lifting biotech crop ban
Professor Sergey Shebala spends a lot of time thinking about how the world's growing population is going to be fed ...
Podcast: Yale neurologist Steven Novella debunks popular myths about GMO golden rice
As Bangladesh prepares to release GMO golden rice, Yale University clinical neurologist Steven Novella and co-hosts debunk some popular myths ...
MillerCoors sues Anheuser-Busch over corn syrup ‘fearmongering’ in Bud Light Super Bowl ad
The king in a Super Bowl commercial for Bud Light may have “just wanted to return some corn syrup to its rightful ...
Roundup lawsuit: Bayer shares tumble as legal battle against glyphosate-cancer claims continues
Shares in Germany’s Bayer’s fell more than 12 percent on [March 20] after a second U.S. jury ruled its Roundup ...
Animal cells grown on grass could yield next version of lab-grown meat
Scientists at the University of Bath have grown animal cells on blades of grass, in a step towards cultured meat ...
Plan to battle citrus greening disease in Florida with antibiotics sparks backlash from activists, some scientists
In the next month or so, orange trees across Florida will erupt in white blossoms, signalling the start of another ...
African biotech group to critics: Where’s evidence GMOs are dangerous?
Mr Enoch Ilori, the Project Officer for Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), has said there is no ...
Crop biotechnology can aid environmental conservation, African scientists say
Over the years, many plant and animal species have disappeared from Earth, in part due to human degradation of the ...
Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’: If you eat 18,615 servings of kale daily, pesticides still won’t harm your health
[On March 20] the Environmental Working Group (EWG) [released] their so-called “dirty dozen” list. Before covering or using this “list,” ...
Glyphosate on trial: Second jury says Bayer’s Roundup weed killer carcinogenic
A US jury has found that one of the world's most widely-used weedkillers was a "substantial factor" in causing a ...
GMO crop approvals focal point of trade talks as US urges China to boost agricultural imports
China has offered the U.S. some “very attractive numbers” for purchases of farm goods as part of “dynamic” trade talks, ...
Lab-grown, plant-based meats raise thorny ethical questions about animal welfare, sustainability
Meatless Monday. “Vegetable-forward” restaurants. Plant-based diets. Foregoing meat is more mainstream than ever before, and at the center of this ...
‘Regenerative agriculture’: World-saving idea or food marketing ploy?
You’re about to start seeing the term “regenerative” when you scan packages of Cheerios and boxed mac and cheese in ...
US lawmakers spar over future of lab-grown, plant-based foods
Towering over a wooden podium in the Arkansas General Assembly....Republican representative David Hillman, a self-declared calf-roper, spoke of steak to ...
Can genetically engineered bacteria ward off a hangover?
We all know that alcohol is bad for you — like really bad for you — and a night of ...
As EU glyphosate-cancer debate rages, 4 countries may take over herbicide safety evaluation from Germany
France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden have agreed to take over from Germany as the lead countries responsible for assessing ...
Malawi inches closer to commercializing GMO Bt cotton as crop yields double in field trials
Malawi is inching closer to commercializing Bt cotton as research into the genetically modified crop is at an advanced stage ...
Bayer lawsuit: Here’s how plaintiffs in next Roundup trial will try to show glyphosate causes cancer
A late March start date is scheduled for a California state court trial of plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, against ...
Organic companies drop ‘anti-establishment tilt,’ partner with global corporations to meet surging ‘natural’ food demand
Big Food and the organics industry are gaining an appetite for each other. With sales of conventional packaged staples lagging, ...
Booming sales suggest non-browning Arctic apple could be breakthrough product, overcoming anti-GMO fears
Jack Bobo doesn’t hold back when talking about the Arctic Apple. He believes the non-browning apple could change how people ...
