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.
China’s adoption of GMO cotton launched 25-year decline in ‘hazardous’ pesticide use
China has experienced large and sustained reductions in pesticide use as a result of adopting GMO cotton, according to the largest-ever ...
Feeding Africa’s hungry countries may require ‘a dozen Green Revolutions’
Despite agriculture’s progress in feeding more people on less land than at any time in history, there are still more ...
Conventional dairy farms do less environmental damage than their organic counterparts
Organic farming has long been considered more environmentally friendly than intensive, conventional farming. But a study led by scientists at ...
Myth busted: Only ‘Big Ag’ develops GMO crops
Farmers in other parts of the world — particularly in third world countries — are experiencing REAL problems that the ...
Will glyphosate-cancer lawsuits block development of safer pesticides?
Dewayne Johnson sued Monsanto because he claimed the Round-Up he sprayed as part of his job as a schoolyard groundskeeper ...
Viewpoint: Catering to anti-GMO activists is a losing business strategy
A few years ago .... Brent Smart, CEO of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi's, headquartered in New York, who had managed their ...
Do GMOs ‘contaminate’ our food? Survey probes consumer views of biotech crops
Is a non-browning apple less “natural” than non-fat milk? In one case, people have injected something into apple DNA to ...
Organic farming’s positive impact on bees may be ‘overestimated,’ new study suggests
Intensive agricultural landscapes can be hostile for bees due to a lack of floral and nesting resources, and due to ...
EU politician says Parliament ‘misrepresents’ its own pesticide safety data
A conservative agricultural spokesperson, has spoken out against a report on pesticides which she says “misrepresents” the findings of the ...
Biotech crops could soften impact of climate change, Gates Foundation says
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) just released its 2018 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the ...
Bayer asks judge to toss ‘flimsy’ $289 million glyphosate-cancer verdict
Bayer on [September 18th] said it wants a California state court judge to overturn the jury’s verdict, order a new ...
Viewpoint: FDA should eliminate non-GMO labels that ‘vilify’ food innovation
It’s high time for the FDA to protect food innovation. The greatest tool for breakthroughs in food — genetic engineering ...
Viewpoint: There’s no such thing as an organic ‘superfood’
If you do a Google search of "Oz superfoods" you will get more than 40,000 hits. The good doctor really likes superfoods ...
French National Assembly rejects glyphosate weed killer ban for second time
The heated debate lasted all night, but the [French] National Assembly rejected all amendments to include a [glyphosate] herbicide ban ...
Biotech experts open their labs to combat misinformation about GMOs
Scientists are demonstrating the efficacy of plant biotechnology by taking Cornell Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellows through the process ...
Corn bred to ‘stand tall’ could prevent rotting crops, food waste
When Daniel Robertson was a kid growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, he got chased off by farmers once or ...
Indoor farms could boost food production, but energy-friendly alternatives exist
By 2050, global food production will need to increase by an estimated 70% in developed countries and 100% in developing countries ...
Methane-cutting GMO ‘super-grass’ could start new biotech crop debate in New Zealand
Groundbreaking New Zealand research shows that methane production from livestock could be dramatically reduced with a new so-called pasture super-grass ...
Success of alternative meat sparks regulatory battle over ‘future of American food’
On Aug. 28, a law went into effect in Missouri that makes it a crime to use the term “meat” to describe ...
New farm bill would stop cities from banning glyphosate and other pesticides
House lawmakers are seeking to halt .... local ordinances to ban or restrict pesticides that opponents say conflict with state ...
Viewpoint: Letting juries settle scientific disputes puts us on ‘a dangerous path’
[In August 2018], Monsanto was ordered to pay American groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson $289 million .... Because a jury determined that ...
Quaker Foods vice president says breakfast cereals aren’t tainted by weed killer glyphosate
Quaker Oats had an “aha moment” about a year ago, said Robbert Rietbroek, senior vice president and general manager for ...
Scientists ‘turn off’ pathogenic genes to protect cotton from devastating wilt disease
Verticillium wilt (VW) is a devastating disease that affects a wide range of crops, causing major losses in agriculture .... One ...
Lessons learned from Twitter GMO debates with David Crosby and other celebrities
When we are passionate about a topic, it is natural for us to become overly emotional when someone gets it ...
CRISPR gene editing speeds breeding of Cassava and other staple food crops
Cassava plays a big role as a staple food and a highly favored commodity in the multibillion starch industry. However, ...
New environment minister says France will stick to 3-year phase out of weed killer glyphosate
The [French] President Emmanuel Macron has committed to phase out the herbicide glyphosate in three years. The new Minister ...
‘Jumping’ genes responsible for strawberry sexes show how fast plants evolve
[S]eparate sexes may seem fundamental to nature, but they’re an oddity for most plants. Now, scientists have figured out how ...
