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: Genetic Literacy Project founder Jon Entine on GMOs and ‘chemophobia’
In this episode of The Dissenter, Ricardo Lopes interviews Genetic Literacy Project founder Jon Entine about bioengineering, GMOs and "chemophobia." Ricardo ...
‘Will people eat it?’: The public opinion battle over CRISPR gene-edited food is just beginning
Zachary Lippman, a plant biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, stood among 2 acres of his experimental crops, including some ...
Agricultural tech startup Indigo uses microbes to improve crops
In humans, a healthy microbiome—the universe of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that lives inside all of us—is increasingly recognized as critical ...
Geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam: ‘First World’ anti-GMO activists perpetuate starvation in developing countries
Needed GMO technology to help citizens in Third World countries is being thwarted by activist groups in First World countries ...
Not just pesticides: Honeybee health impacted by habitat loss, nutrition, pathogens and more
Around 2006, beekeepers and scientists started talking about something called colony collapse disorder. CCD at that time was a new phenomenon; suddenly whole hives of ...
Some in Germany’s Green Party reconsidering long-held opposition to GMOs and genetic engineering
Genetic engineering is the devil's tool of the agricultural industry, dangerous to health and the environment. Or so you could summarize the ...
Viewpoint: Why ‘organic’ should be redefined to include GMOs
The challenges of sustainable food production without damaging the environment for a growing human population have increased considerably. The current ...
Will public embrace CRISPR crops if they can help feed our growing population and protect the environment?
Experts estimate we’ll be eating the first CRISPR produce — likely strawberries or another type of fruit — within five ...
Aftershock of Monsanto being stripped of its patent control over Indian Bt GMO cotton: It may doom domestic crop research, too
Sections of the government, egged on by powerful Andhra seed companies, are probably cheering the judgment of the Delhi high court’s ...
Podcast: How anti-GMO activists used ‘fake news’ to attack University of Florida plant scientist Kevin Folta
In this episode, [Liz Haswell and Ivan Baxter] talk to Kevin Folta, Professor and Chairman of the Horticultural Sciences Department ...
All yeast strains likely descended from common ancestor in China
When scientists in France set out to sequence 1,000 yeast genomes, they looked at strains from all the places you ...
Viewpoint: Both pro- and anti-GMO factions often lose sight of sustainable farming goals
In pursuit of sustainability, shoppers are reaching for the organic apple or the GMO-free chips. But if we truly want ...
Video: John Franz invented the herbicide glyphosate—is he a farming hero or villain?
Who's the man behind Glyphosate, and why is he winning some of the highest honors in science if his invention ...
‘Natural traveler’? Humans may not be responsible for sweet potato’s migration from South America to Pacific
Of all the plants that humanity has turned into crops, none is more puzzling than the sweet potato. Indigenous people ...
Viewpoint: Gene editing in agriculture shouldn’t be regulated, whether applied to crops or animals
CRISPR has changed the way alterations are made; so in the past year the FDA clarified their position, any intentional ...
The high price of food labels
Many people assume that organic and non-GMO foods are more expensive, but is that really the case? In the recently ...
30% of the world’s rice supply is lost to rice blast fungus—this chemical genetic treatment could halt it
Scientists have found a way to stop the spread of rice blast, a fungus that destroys up to 30% of ...
Monsanto may leave India after court rules GMO Bt cotton patent unenforceable
The Delhi High Court, on March 11th, ruled that Monsanto’s patents on two genetically modified (GM) seed varieties of cotton ...
Genetic engineering may provide only long-term solution to citrus greening disease, National Academies of Sciences report says
A single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening (also known as Huanglongbing or HLB) in Florida in the future is ...
Cotton bollworm-corn earworm hybrid ‘megapest’ discovered in Brazil, could spread to US
It's the stuff of science fiction. Hybridisation of two caterpillars in Brazil confirmed through extensive genomic testing by CSIRO researchers ...
Viewpoint: 6 reasons to reject the Environmental Working Group’s misinformation on food and pesticides
1. It creates a false sense of food risk where next to none exists. They are not a testing organization. They ...
Neonicotinoids, glyphosate may impact honeybees’ ability to taste and learn, ‘field realistic’ lab study claims
Hive-bound young honey bees (Apis mellifera) are being poisoned by insecticide and weed killer gathered by their foraging hive mates, ...
Video: The science behind insect-resistant GMO Bt corn—explained
Joel Ochieng, Senior Research Fellow and Leader of Agricultural Biotechnology at the University of Nairobi, explains what a GMO is -- ...
Monsanto has no patent on GMO Bt cotton seeds, Indian court rules
Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, can’t own a patent over genetically modified cotton seeds in India, a court ...
Viewpoint: EWG’s Dirty Dozen foods and pesticides list scares people away from healthy eating
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) on [April 10] released its 2018 “Dirty Dozen” list to showcase the top pesticide-riddled fruits and vegetables. But some argue ...
European farmers push EU to emulate USDA in not regulating CRISPR and other new crop breeding techniques
European farmers warned EU policymakers on [April 10] to take immediate action and encourage innovative new plant breeding techniques following the ...
Viewpoint: How an anti-GMO reporter discovered science and embraced the benefits of crop biotechnology
I’ve ... come to learn that GMOs are a stand-in for many other gripes, like industrialization and corporatization. They’re viewed ...
