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.
Cancer researcher: Media hysteria over glyphosate herbicide undermines science
Editor's note: Guy André Pelouze is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon who did cancer research during his training and lung cancer treatment ...
DowDuPont, BASF to challenge Monsanto’s dominance of herbicide-tolerant GMO soybean market
Monsanto Co is facing major threats to its historic dominance of seed and herbicide technology for the $40 billion U.S ...
Could GMO crops stymie Africa’s fall armyworm invasion?
When just a hungry caterpillar, the fall armyworm will happily munch on more than 80 plant species. But its favourite ...
Is glyphosate unsafe? European Food Safety Authority rejects accusations of ‘undue industry influence’ in rejecting carcinogenic designation
Editor's note: Bernhard Url is the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority The job of the European Food Safety Authority ...
Following pest infestation, will Indian farmers turn wary of GMO Bt cotton?
The loss caused by the pink bollworm infestation has raised questions about the sustainability of GM cotton, which accounts for ...
Nigeria’s agriculture minister seeks advice on GMO food safety from country’s scientists
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has called on Nigerian scientists to advise the Federal Government on ...
Trump administration’s biotech oversight plan echoes Obama’s, but regulatory approach remains unknown
Editor's note: Gregory Jaffe is the director of the project on biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest In ...
Some large Australian supermarket chains removing neonicotinoid insecticides from shelves, citing bee health concerns
Woolworths in Australia has joined a growing list of companies to stop supplying a controversial pesticide linked to global declines in ...
‘GMO stigma’: Arctic Apple—on sale in US—battles public perceptions
The Arctic Apple, on sale in the US from Canadian company Okanagan Speciality Fruits, is a genetically modified (GM) apple that ...
Farmers, scientists worry anti-GMO activists could stymie CRISPR and other gene-edited crop research
[N]ew precision breeding tools are creating such a buzz that some activists suggest techniques like CRISPR Cas9 - which involves ...
Critics push back against Australian government recommendation to loosen constraints on CRISPR gene editing research
Australia’s gene technology regulator has proposed a bold shake-up of rules surrounding genetic engineering processes, potentially loosening constraints on research ...
EU sets up special committee to investigate Greens’ glyphosate herbicide reapproval concerns
The European Parliament has given the green light to a special committee which aims to look into the EU’s authorisation ...
USDA Organic board proposes approving new chemicals, removing Rotenone, for use in organic farming
Most consumers don’t know much about it, but for the $50 billion organic marketplace, it’s all about the details. And ...
Ugandan experts: GMOs—like vaccines—can save lives
The debate on Genetically Modified Organisms was recently re-ignited after [Uganda's] President Yoweri Museveni refused to give his assent to ...
US—but not China—approves GMO rice developed by Chinese scientists
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared a genetically modified strain of rice to be commercially viable, but ...
Why Greenpeace opposes GMOs: It’s a ‘corporate takeover of our food system’
Large corporations producing genetically modified seeds dominate the debate, with activists questioning their motives and whether they have the ability ...
For sale in Canada, genetically engineered salmon delayed by politics in US
A trivia question for American food shoppers: AquAdvantage, the genetically engineered Atlantic salmon being sold in Canada, is available in ...
Report: ‘Little doubt’ GMOs increase crop yields
Editor's note: Gary Brester is a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University Some have questioned whether GM crops ...
Monsanto looks to launch new herbicide-tolerant canola, soybean varieties in coming years
Dicamba-tolerant canola is coming and so is a triple-threat soybean, resistant to glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate. That’s just some of ...
‘Come stay with me’: Indian farmer invites anti-GMO activists to see how biotech cotton improves lives
Balwinder Kang has a simple message for those who don’t think Indian farmers like him should be able to utilize ...
New Zealand garden centers continue selling neonicotinoid insecticides, won’t follow Bunnings’ lead
Kiwi garden centres will not immediately follow hardware giant Bunnings' lead and stop selling controversial pesticides said to harm bees ...
EU seeks ‘clarity’ on court’s recommendation not to regulate new crop breeding techniques as GMOs
The European Commission expects “important” clarity on the scope of GMO legislation ahead of a Court ruling on new plant ...
Gene editing: How breeders use CRISPR and TALEN to improve crops, livestock
Animal and plant breeders are trying out a set of powerful new tools which have the potential to revolutionize agricultural ...
Top Mexican university endorses GMOs: ‘Unfair and immoral’ that farmers don’t have access to biotech
The national debate about the use of GMOs in Mexico experienced a significant shift when the technology received strong academic ...
Viewpoint: Plant scientists need to engage public on gene editing in agriculture
Easing the public into being more comfortable with genome-edited food will take more than simply stating facts according to Kevin ...
No set date to end glyphosate herbicide use in Germany, says agriculture minister
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt said on Thursday [Jan. 18] he could see no set date for an end to ...
Nigerian scientist hits back at anti-GMO group’s attack on approval of biotech cassava field trials
A research scientist, Paul Onyenekwe, has described the approval granted to two international agencies by a Nigerian regulatory agency to ...
