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.
Can Ginkgo Bioworks’ synthetic biology venture reduce mycotoxins in animal feed, cut antibiotic use?
Mycotoxin mitigation, antibiotic reduction and improved feed crop production are some potential areas of interest for the biotech company as ...
Viewpoint: UK’s Guardian again gives anti-GMO activist Carey Gillam platform to spread misinformation and fear about Roundup weedkiller
[Carey Gillam's] second recent article in the Guardian says that the herbicide formulation Roundup is more toxic to human cells than glyphosate ...
China seeks to dislodge US dominance in CRISPR gene-edited crops
China is seeking a lead in editing plant genes, potentially shifting the epicenter of the emerging agricultural technology toward the ...
Natural News: The pro-Trump website that anti-GMO and anti-vaccine liberals love to share
Natural News — and [Mike] Adams’ expanding nebula of self-promoting sites — produces shareable content on buzzworthy health topics such ...
India’s food regulator proposes mandatory GMO labeling
Seeking to introduce GMO labelling for the first time in India, the country’s food regulator has proposed all packaged food products containing genetically modified ...
GMO crop pioneer Robb Fraley to leave Monsanto after Bayer takeover
It’s the end of an era at Monsanto Co. after executives including the seed giant’s scientific leader Robb Fraley announced ...
Viewpoint: Legal certainty, public support needed to unlock biotech’s potential in Europe
A new age is dawning in Europe, one that offers an opportunity to fully realize the power of biotechnology to ...
Viewpoint: Food companies’ non-GMO advertising has a human cost
In keeping with our era of ideological boycotts, I will no longer be purchasing Kind bars. Or Barilla pasta. Or Triscuit crackers. Or Del Monte diced tomatoes. Or Nutro dog ...
Most UK millennials unconcerned about eating GMO foods, poll finds
The advent of genetically modified crops caused a scandal in the 1990s. But the younger generation is largely relaxed about ...
India’s Supreme Court denies Monsanto’s request to stay order rescinding GMO Bt cotton patent ahead of appeal
The Supreme Court on Monday [May 7] refused to stay the order of the Delhi high court holding that plant ...
Viewpoint: USDA GMO labeling proposal could make things more confusing
On its surface, the rule is intended to reduce the consumer confusion that abounds when it comes to GMOs. But ...
Viewpoint: ‘Precision plant breeding’ better describes crop biotechnology than misused ‘GMO’ term
[I]n agriculture we continue to use terms such as GMO, GE, GM, transgenic, CRISPR, TALEN, genome/gene editing and biotech crops ...
Monsanto appeals court ruling stripping its rights to GMO Bt cotton patent in India
Monsanto Co has appealed to India’s Supreme Court against a ruling by the Delhi High Court which decreed [in April] ...
Which GMO foods are available at US grocery stores?
While GMOs typically make a disproportionate splash in the media, the reality is that there are very few different types ...
Plants monitor underground signals and react to neighbors’ stresses, study finds
Plants are more sensitive than they might seem. Although they stay in one spot, they are monitoring and reacting to ...
USDA releases GMO food labeling proposal—suggests using ‘bioengineered’ instead of ‘genetically modified’
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a proposed rule to implement the landmark legislation requiring some form of disclosure of ...
‘Ecomodern Eating’: Why agricultural productivity and innovation are key to sustainable food and farming
Sunday, April 22nd, marked nearly 50 years since millions of people gathered for the first Earth Day. Their celebration raised awareness ...
6 promising genetically engineered animals stuck in regulatory purgatory
You’ve probably heard the news that genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon is on the way. ... Here are six other genetically ...
Viewpoint: 8 things Vandana Shiva needs to know about US farmers and GMOs
In mid-April, famous anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva was paid nearly $20K by my hometown university to speak on campus. While I can appreciate her ...
How scientists are using CRISPR to make foods that directly benefit consumers
Scientists are now using a pioneering technology called CRISPR to edit a plant’s own genes, ushering in a host of ...
Podcast: Geneticist Pamela Ronald on how GMO misinformation could hurt world’s poor
If you’ve heard that GMOs are bad, I want to introduce you to Pamela Ronald. A plant geneticist, Pamela co-authored ...
Identification of 10,000 new rice genes could speed up crop breeding
A new study published in the Nature journal opens the possibility to accelerate rice breeding to achieve food security for some of ...
Ohio governor candidate Dennis Kucinich got $120,000 from anti-GMO group
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich received $122,000 in consulting fees in 2016 from a group that works for food sustainability ...
Indian university’s insect-resistant GMO Bt cotton ready for field trials
A Bt cotton variety developed by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is ready for trials. It took the university ten ...
Genetic engineering has ‘enormous potential’ to solve environmental problems in Africa, scientists say
[S]cientists and government officials, in a series of exclusive interviews with the Alliance for Science, opined that biotechnology is one ...
Viewpoint: Why is the Guardian publishing anti-GMO activist Carey Gillam’s glyphosate lies?
Carey Gillam is an anti-GMO activist who once wrote for Reuters, but no longer does. An e-mail obtained from a FOIA ...
Can governments, public keep up with gene-editing revolution in agriculture?
A mushroom that doesn't brown. White flour with as much fiber as whole-wheat flour. Corn that can fend off northern ...
