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.
Challenging the idea that the world’s farmers have been bought by ‘Big Ag’
Accusations that if you say anything good about biotechnology, then you must be getting paid by the multi-nationals, frustrates Canadian ...
Fast food burgers tainted by antibiotics? Not so fast
So, [October 18], millions of Americans woke up to the latest alarmist headline—that burger chains are using meat contaminated with ...
Argentina approves first drought-resistant, herbicide-tolerant GMO soybean
The Argentine government approved the first soy that is tolerant to drought and that also combines better weed control by ...
Whole genome sequencing on the farm: Mobile technology aids fight against disease, pests in Africa
In a world first, international scientists .... have used whole genome sequencing to help diagnose a plant pathogen destroying crops ...
Viewpoint: FDA pesticide report should alleviate public fears of chemicals in food, but no one is listening
The International Food Information Council Foundation’s (IFIC) 2018 Food & Health survey identified carcinogens or cancer-causing chemicals in food as ...
Are Smirnoff’s GMO-free vodka labels illegal?
Smirnoff, a vodka brand, has tried to place itself under a health halo by claiming it is not only gluten-free but ...
There are literally no more studies we can do to show glyphosate is safe, expert says
Several days ago I wrote a column about the wrong-headed claim that glyphosate is a carcinogen and the huge number of tort ...
New ‘scuba rice’ could protect 49 million acres of rice fields from flooding
According to some estimates, half the world depends on rice as its staple food. But as the climate changes, rice cultivation ...
Debunking marijuana myths: Monsanto has not created ‘GMO super weed’
Despite what some chronic users may claim, the cannabis plant is not mystical. Like any living species, its cells house ...
Excessive regulation, trade wars may give rise to black market for biotech crops, experts say
The rise in global trade wars and the recent EU decision to classify new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) as genetically ...
Oxitec, Gates Foundation aim to curb pesticide-resistant insects, malaria with new ‘self-limiting mosquito’
Oxitec [a] UK-based biotechnology company ..... [October 18] announced that it is expanding its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda ...
CRISPR could help combat bovine tuberculosis—disease that costs farmers $3 billion annually
Recombinetics announced [October 16] the launch of TARGET-TB, a tripartite collaborative research project with University College Dublin in the Republic ...
Precision plant breeding could boost sustainable rice production 25 percent
Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) [recently] announced a multi-year framework agreement on ...
Transcendental Meditation: The strange religious practice behind America’s anti-GMO movement
Celebs from Katy Perry to Ivanka say Transcendental Meditation [TM] helps them focus. The movement’s chief promises more: quasi-magical powers ...
Edible cotton? USDA approves biotech seeds that can be spread like peanut butter
Americans may soon be eating cotton for the first time — not just wearing it — as a new edible ...
Breeding disease-resistant sugarcane now a possibility with unlocking of sugarcane genome
For centuries, sugarcane has supplied human societies with alcohol, biofuel, building and weaving materials, and the world's most relied-upon source ...
Sustainability failure: Anti-GMO France’s 10-year effort to slash pesticide use boosted spraying by 12%
In 2008, the French government announced a dramatic shift in agricultural policy, calling for pesticide use to be slashed in ...
Video: Filipino farmer shares insider tips for spreading GMO acceptance in developing world
To mark the occasion of World Food Day, farmers from around the world will convene in Iowa to share thoughts ...
Viewpoint: 7-year food fraud scheme exposes flawed oversight of organic farming
Three farmers in Nebraska just plead guilty to a food fraud scheme in which they were selling conventionally grown corn and soybeans ...
‘Low-emission’ cows that produce less methane gas take center stage amid growing climate change fears
From low-emission cows to robotic soil management, the farming industry will have to explore new approaches in the wake of ...
Viewpoint: Europe has traded crop biotechnology for ‘faith-based’ agroecology
We are living in a new Dark Age in Europe where innovation and technology are being rejected at an alarming ...
Viewpoint: USMCA North American trade deal sets precedent for sensible worldwide biotech crop regulations
In the crop science industry, China has a reputation for taking a long, long time to approve new genetically modified ...
Natural GMOs? Some crops incorporate ‘foreign DNA’ all by themselves
People opposed to or afraid of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) complain that GMOs are unsafe and unnatural. What do those ...
Viewpoint: If organic farmers want to promote sustainable farming they should reconsider hostility toward CRISPR-gene editing
A University of California, Berkeley professor stands at the front of the room, delivering her invited talk about the potential ...
Viewpoint: Should we be concerned that three biotech companies may control 70 percent of agrochemical industry?
In the past two years alone, three major corporate mergers have begun to reshape what was an already concentrated international ...
New USDA research shows honey bee numbers stable—and probably growing
In 2006, large and mysterious losses of honey bee colonies led entomologists to classify a set of diagnostic symptoms as ...
How to change the minds of GMO skeptics
Critical thinking is something I’ve prided myself on and something I discuss frequently when giving public speeches. Unfortunately, this can sometimes ...
