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.
Video: Are biotech crops safe? A brief history of the GMO debate
Recent studies show the general public and the scientific community are deeply divided on the perceived safety of GMOs. Ars ...
Viewpoint: How monarch butterflies exposed the hypocrisy of anti-GMO Greenpeace
In the past, I have asked....two very silly sounding questions toward Greenpeace. Why do they like watermelons? And why do they like grapefruits? As ...
Scientists could produce ‘green’ beer with CRISPR-edited yeast, but consumer fear of GMOs may stand in the way
First came the IPAs and then the double IPAs, triple IPAs, and imperial IPAs....Like most hipsters, I love a good hoppy ...
Bayer asks judge in second glyphosate-cancer case to restrict evidence to be presented against Monsanto
Bayer AG unit Monsanto has asked a California judge in the litigation over its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup allegedly causing ...
Audio: New FDA pesticide residue study confirms America’s food supply is safe
The FDA recently released its annual Pesticide Residue Report. As pesticides are one of the things people worry most about, I ...
Heated legal battle in India over Monsanto’s Bt insect-resistant cotton ‘far from over’
On January 8, a two-judge Bench of the [Indian] Supreme Court set aside an order of a Division Bench of ...
Canada says Monsanto weed killer Roundup unlikely to cause cancer—should consumers be relieved?
Health Canada has delivered some reassuring news for people worried about glyphosate [Monsanto's Roundup] in their food and the environment ...
A prominent report claims we must eat less meat to stay healthy. A prominent agriculture expert responds the evidence is ‘weak’, more values than science
By now, I suspect many of you have seen the report by the EAT-Lancet Commission Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food ...
Food marketing can change buying habits, but consumers may become ‘numb’ to unnecessary labels
A study by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University said labeling has an effect on ...
Viewpoint: New book “A Matter of Taste” cuts through fog of ‘misinformation’ around GMOs and modern farming
The foodie ecosystem is dominated by polarizing movies....Typically containing stale feelings and claims of folks like Michael Pollan and Vandana Shiva (who was ...
‘Planetary health diet’ aims to feed 10 billion people without causing ‘catastrophic’ environmental damage
A diet has been developed that promises to save lives, feed 10 billion people and all without causing catastrophic damage ...
From salt to hand sanitizer, corn is in everything. What would life without it look like?
When Christine Robinson was first diagnosed with a corn allergy 17 years ago, she remembers thinking, “No more popcorn, no ...
Scientists breeding new disease-resistant soybeans to crack down on parasitic nematode
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) [a common soybean pest] has overcome the main source of genetic resistance – PI 88788 – ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate activists are ‘rich, organized, and powerful’—don’t underestimate them
The campaign against glyphosate started a few years ago. The fairly benign herbicide was so closely tied to Roundup Ready ...
Video: Organic food—marketing ‘scam’ or healthier option? Here’s what science says
Organic food is a huge trend: it promises a healthier and better life. But can Organic food really live up ...
UK’s John Innes Centre seeks approval to test gene-edited wheat designed to combat anemia
Researchers at the John Innes Centre have applied to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for consent ...
‘Conversion messages’: Ex-GMO skeptics may be best advocates for crop biotech
When a strong advocate for one side of a science controversy now believes the opposite, it can have a big ...
‘Landmark’ progress in 2018 expected to fuel more growth in Nigeria’s crop biotech sector
Building on landmark events from the past year, Nigeria’s biotechnology sector is expecting significant progress on two key food and ...
4 states may outlaw ‘meat’ labels for lab-grown protein
Missouri has already made it a crime to label something like a veggie burger or tissue grown in a lab as “meat.” ...
French regulator ANSES defends 2017 approval of Monsanto’s recently banned Roundup Pro 360 weedkiller
The National Agency for Food Safety, Environment and Labor (ANSES) “disputes any error of assessment” after the ban on the glyphosate-based ...
USDA wants to use drones to keep E. coli out of our food supply
When the new Food Safety Modernization Act became law in 2011, it required farmers to test for E. coli and other bacteria ...
60 percent of wild coffee species at risk of ‘extinction’
More than half of the world’s 124 wild coffee plant species meet the criteria for inclusion on the International Union ...
Viewpoint: Bipartisan opposition to GMOs driven more by activist ‘propaganda’ than politics
I have written extensively about GMOs....because it is the subject about which the difference between public opinion and the opinion of ...
Forests can slow global warming, but growing evidence suggests they aren’t ‘climate saviors’
When it comes to fighting global warming, trees have emerged as one of the most popular weapons. With nations making ...
India’s agriculture and biotech agencies announce plan to promote crop biotech research
[India's] Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has undertaken several activities and programs to promote biotechnology research and development [R&D] in the ...
Heated legal battle over Monsanto’s controversial herbicide dicamba likely to continue in 2019
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against dicamba [the week of January 7], but left open ...
Researchers aim to develop heartier potatoes, but ‘generations of inbreeding’ may pose a challenge
Scientists are trying to revolutionize potatoes and....cure the tubers’ depression, the result of generations of inbreeding. ....Potatoes reproduce through cloning, ...
