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 steam-treated seeds reduce the use of agricultural chemicals?
Since the 1950s, farmers across the world have used chemical treatments of their seeds to protect them from pests, pathogens, ...
‘They don’t use organic fairy dust to control pests’ Here’s the list of approved natural and synthetic herbicides and pesticides
While much about modern farming techniques centers around the use of synthetic pesticides [...] on large acreage, the question often ...
Viewpoint: GMOs are scapegoated by activists and blamed for encouraging the world to skirt global food and agriculural challenges
The debate around GMOs entails far more than scientific facts: GMOs have become a proxy for many socio-economic issues such as ...
Enriching soil: In agriculture, ‘there are no solutions, only trade-offs’
This is a critical moment for land use policy globally, with many countries (e.g. the UK and the European Union) ...
Viewpoint: Why India needs to swiftly embrace crop biotechnology
For more than a decade, we have been trapped in a stifling status quo, denying farmers the choice to embrace ...
Ideological science—How the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) promotes unscientific hysteria about red meat
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) designated processed meats (hot dogs, ...
Biopower: What the US needs to do to counter China and secure its biotechnology leadership
[T]he Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released a major new report, Biopower: Securing American Leadership in Biotechnology by Vivek Chilukuri and Hannah ...
No, Elderberry is not a magic elixir
Elderberry supplements — marketed for boosting the immune system — have recently become one of the most popular herbal supplements in the ...
Viewpoint: 7 social media food scare disinformation mongers getting rich peddling disinformation
Fighting disinformation around agriculture can be frustrating. Just like a hydra, whenever you manage to slay (er, discredit) one influencer, ...
Possibility of Trump tariffs has agricultural community in knots
As the threat of tariffs looms, the U.S. agriculture market is expected to be one of the main industries to ...
Viewpoint: Challenging the simplistic and false dichotomy between GM crops and environmental restoration
It would seem that environmental activists and organizations would be natural allies of approaches that could decrease pesticide use and ...
Trump administration abruptly ended government food safety alerts, then issued a ‘clarification’ that it’s a pause. Will the ban end up becoming permanent?
Officials inside the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the agency that oversees both the CDC and the FDA, ...
No, the modern world is not killing us–Viewpoint: RFK. Jr.’s reckless war on food and agriculture
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his Children's Defense Fund and his work as a trial lawyer for Natural Resources Defense ...
Global food security moonshot: 153 Nobel and World Food Prize laureates outline what needs to be done to prevent a future global food catastrophe
World leaders must make massive investments in agriculture to avert an imminent food catastrophe by 2050. This is the urgent ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists roiled by Trump administration’s rollback of proposed limits on PFAS
Amid a flurry of actions curtailing Biden’s environmental policies, the administration of newly inaugurated President Donald Trump ... withdrew a ...
Here are the details of Mexico’s proposed constitutional ban on growing genetically modified corn
The federal government [of Mexico published] its constitutional reform initiative to prohibit the planting and cultivation of genetically modified corn ...
EU’s proposed Green Deal farming strategy poses serious challenges to South African farmers
The EU’s central strategy to implement the European Green Deal is designated “Farm to Fork” (F2F). A significant element in ...
Church of Scientology and RFK, Jr.: Reuters investigation highlights HHS secretary’s problematic ties to Scientologist tort law firm Wisner Baum
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would retain legal fees earned from litigation against drugmaker Merck if he is confirmed as President ...
Viewpoint: Global food deficiencies are the result of faulty policies, not a shortfall in production
[W]hen more than 150 Nobel laureates and World Food Prize winners sign an open letter calling for “planet-friendly moonshot efforts ...
Viewpoint: Here’s a plan to reduce chemical inputs in agriculture
Many countries have implemented policies to reduce the use of chemical inputs in agriculture. However, these policies face many obstacles ...
Left-leaning suburban moms lurching towards health and environmental conspiracy theories
Today, the term ['crunchy mom'] has taken on a new meaning. Yes, the crunchy moms are still organic, still love ...
10 ways CRISPR gene editing is revolutionizing agriculture and medicine
What if we can delete the gene responsible for the life sentence called genetic disorder? What if we can modify ...
Viewpoint: Genetically modified crop advantage: Block on advanced sustainable farming technology cripples Africa’s goal of food and farming independence
The future growth of Africa will be driven through conventional breeding approaches and the use of biotechnologies, which can produce ...
How genetic breeding is revolutionizing vertical farming
In the pursuit of enhancing resource management in indoor vertical farming, the utilization of limited space becomes a critical consideration ...
Smart agriculture: African farmers urged to gradually reduce use of pesticides and fertilizers rather than abandon them to reduce risk of significant crop and economic losses
After decades of mono-cropping and overgrazing, around 65% of Africa’s farmland is now considered unproductive or degraded, leaving more than 270 million people ...
AI poised to unleash a new generation of bio stimulants
Syngenta and a UK artificial intelligence company are combining forces to use the 'full power of AI' for the development ...
Viewpoint: Every study shows that Red Dye 3 is safe for humans. So why is the U.S. — but not Canada — banning it?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ... announcement that the red dye known as erythrosine, FD&C Red No. 3 or ...
