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: Kenya to begin planting yield-boosting GMO cotton by spring 2020
Cotton farmers in Kenya are set to start planting genetically modified cotton by May 2020, a year later than expected, ...
Over 99% of tested produce ‘well below’ pesticide safety limits, USDA study shows
More than 99% of [fruits and vegetable] samples tested in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program had residue ...
Gene-edited animals could improve agricultural productivity. But could there be unintended consequences?
The purported birth [in November] of the world’s first gene-edited human babies .... spurred a wave of global outrage .... [T]he ...
Viewpoint: How to talk to your anti-GMO relatives during the holidays
We all have them. This brother-in-law or sister-in-law, who is very active on social networks. You accepted his friendly request for family ...
Saving our bacon: Gene editing could protect pigs from deadly virus
The meat and poultry industry is in need of novel methods to stave off infection. A group from the College of ...
Adoption of GMO cowpea, rice could offer substantial boost to Ghana’s farmers and consumers, study says
Cowpea is the most widely produced grain legume in Ghana and a key food security crop. In northern Ghana, where ...
Africa’s farmers lack vital information about the benefits of GMO crops, expert says
African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) on [December 16] expressed displeasure over lack of knowledge of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) among ...
Organic farming and dairy production much worse for the environment—as much as 70% greater release of greenhouse gases—concludes ‘ground-breaking’ Swedish study
Organically farmed food has a bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed food .... This is the finding of a new ...
Are we ‘meddling with creation’ by growing GMO crops?
[F]or some, it’s a stretch to reconcile faith with new developments in agriculture, especially when it involves (perceived) meddling with ...
Can AI-enhanced plant breeding deliver high yielding non-GMO crops?
Hi Fidelity Genetics (HFG), a company that uses sensors, data science, and statistical genetics to create non-genetically modified crops, just ...
Biotech could help Mexico’s bean farmers cope with climate change
Beans are the most important grain legume in human diets .... Indeed, bean production is central to the food security ...
Cooked wheat contains carcinogen. EU’s gene-editing rules block scientists from fixing it
For nearly 15 years, Professor Nigel Halford has been trying to improve wheat. When wheat is cooked, it forms acrylamide, a ...
Can GMO agave transform the tequila industry?
Black frost is a meteorological phenomenon marked by temperatures that drop below 0 ° C for up to five hours ...
Organic vs conventional farming: Which is worse for Earth’s climate?
Organically farmed food has a bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed food, due to the greater areas of land required ...
Why are farmers so eager to grow GMO crops?
Genetically modified (GM) crops are produced using new genetic engineering methods. Since their development slightly over 20 years ago, they ...
Political opposition stalling approval of GMO mustard in India, scientist says
Delhi University scientist Deepak Pental, the inventor of genetically modified (GM) mustard, has said the Union government appeared interested in ...
High-quality hybrid seeds could help feed Africa’s growing population
Africa’s demand for food will more than double by 2050, driven by population growth and rapid urbanization. A growing population ...
Another study challenges controversial, retracted Séralini paper suggesting GMO corn causes cancer
Do you remember those spectacular images of rats fed GMO corn with invasive cancers, so big that the tumors looked like ...
UK farming minister says neonicotinoid ban has boosted pesticide use
[UK] Farming Minister George Eustice has admitted the recent ban on neonicotinoids has actually increased overall pesticide use. Mr Eustice made ...
Revolutionary hybrid plant clones could cut costs for farmers
Plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, have discovered a way to make crop plants replicate through seeds as clones ...
Fight against fall armyworm in Africa hindered by ‘anti-GMO sentiment’, scientist argues
Though anti-GMO sentiment is restraining agricultural advancement in the developing world, an Iowa State University agronomist hopes his research will ...
Viewpoint: FDA’s plan to regulate gene-edited animals as drugs is a ‘failed policy’
Some bureaucrats in the Trump administration seem not to have gotten the memo about deregulation being good for innovation, the ...
Do GMO American chestnut trees pose a threat to the environment? Two new studies say no
Two new studies on the environmental impact of transgenic American chestnut trees provide evidence that the trees have no harmful ...
Can we feed a growing world population without using yield-boosting technologies?
The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this .... Nature is ruthless and weeds will ...
Is climate change ‘robbing’ our food of nutrients?
Is it possible to starve yourself of nutrients while simultaneously gaining weight? .... According to a growing body of research, ...
Using biotech to turn plants into ‘antifungal factories’ could protect against disease
Researchers [at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in Spain] have developed a biotechnological tool to produce .... antifungal ...
Viewpoint: Criticism of GMO crops in India is ‘deeply flawed’
A review article, “Modern technologies for sustainable food and nutrition security,” which appeared in the November 25 issue of the ...
