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.
Two US Congressional committees ask IARC cancer agency to testify, citing ‘scientific integrity’ concerns
Two influential U.S. Congressmen have asked the World Health Organization’s cancer agency to get ready to testify about its work ...
How one farmer stood up to anti-GMO activists and the Italian state—and won
As chair of the local farmers federation [Giorgio Fidenato, a small-holder farmer growing corn, tomatoes and soybeans in Italy] pushes for ...
Toxin-neutralizing GMO peanuts could solve serious food safety issue in Africa and Asia
Aflatoxin contamination in peanuts poses major challenges for vulnerable populations of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Developing peanut varieties to ...
Video: How glyphosate herbicide enables no-till, environmentally friendly farming
[Editor's note: Jake Freestone is the manager of an arable and sheep LEAF Demonstration Farm in Tewkesbury, England.] [N]o-till or zero-till, ...
Will advanced breeding technologies render GMO crops obsolete?
Genetically modified (GM) crop technology is not the answer to helping UK farmers produce more food, according to the head ...
Could we protect bees from neonicotinoid insecticides by planting trees?
[I]t's unlikely farmers will give up or limit pesticide use, so instead, a team of researchers at the University of ...
New rice variety that grows in salty water could feed millions in China
Scientists in China have developed several types of rice that can be grown in seawater, potentially creating enough food for ...
Should the government regulate gene-edited crops?
“They call us the food police.” That’s how Greg Jaffe described his work as director of biotechnology for the Center for ...
Disease-resistant GM potatoes that reduce pesticide use ‘worked brilliantly’ in UK field trial
A genetically-modified (GM) potato designed to resist a devastating plant disease has worked “brilliantly” during the first year of field ...
Can any GMO documentary, pro or con, get the issue right?
Both films [Food Evolution and Island Earth] were fun to watch. They both also get a lot of the facts right. But ...
EU ban of globally used glyphosate would disrupt agricultural and food markets
Some of Europe’s biggest trade partners fear a potential EU ban on glyphosate could hit exports of crops ranging from ...
Viewpoint: IARC glyphosate cancer advisor Christopher Portier’s history of lying about conflicts of interest
In a deposition last month for a court case pending against Monsanto for glyphosate “damages,” [Christopher Portier, the scientist who ...
Just in time for Halloween: Scientists successfully sequence pumpkin genomes
Scientists ... have sequenced the genomes of two important pumpkin species, Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita moschata. The finished genomes appear in the October ...
EU votes on 5-year glyphosate extension November 9; France for shorter renewal
The European Commission has proposed extending the license for weed-killer glyphosate by five years after its initial plan for a ...
Glyphosate herbicide ban won’t save anyone from cancer, will harm environment
The widely used weedkiller glyphosate is available in every garden store, but now there are fears it can cause cancer ...
Using sunlight to make plastic? Genetically modified algae shows promise
Michigan State University scientists are proposing a new way to economically produce biodegradable plastics with sunlight and help from an ...
Arctic golden delicious: Non-browning genetically engineered apples debut in Midwest grocery stores
Boldly going where no genetically modified apple has gone before, Arctic apples from Okanagan Specialty Fruits will ship to about ...
‘Media war’ erupts in Ghana as GMO cowpeas set for 2018 release
The debate over whether biotechnology applications are safe in food production has intensified in Ghana as the country prepares for ...
How will the EU regulate new crop breeding techniques like CRISPR?
Developments in genetic coding techniques open the doorway to crops that produce higher yields or have positive characteristics, such as ...
Video: Why organic and non-GMO labels don’t matter when it comes to eating healthy
[N]on-GMO labels do more than placate people concerned about scientists secretly tinkering with their food. They might persuade people to make ...
Healthy bacon? Headlines mislead on Chinese CRISPR gene-edited low-fat pigs
On October 23, Chinese scientists published a paper heralding a truly remarkable feat: Using the genome-editing technique CRISPR, they created 12 healthy ...
Neonicotinoid insecticides may hurt honey bee colony health by reducing genetic diversity
[Editor's note: The following is from a study published in the open-access mega-journal PLOS ONE.] Neonicotinoid insecticides can cause a ...
Illegal spraying of off-label dicamba herbicide main cause of crop damage, BASF says
Illegal spraying of a volatile weedkiller may be the cause of unprecedented damage to crops earlier this year, especially for ...
Non-GMO condoms? Label’s proliferation confuses consumers
The National Milk Producers Federation launched a “peel back the label” campaign this summer, aimed squarely at a growing list ...
Activists in India put GMO mustard in regulatory limbo
India has frozen requests to commercially release a locally developed genetically modified mustard, an environment ministry document released on Tuesday [October ...
CRISPR crop: Disease-resistant cassava staple could help tackle hunger in Africa
To prove that a new-gene editing technology could be used to alter the cassava plant, scientists in the St. Louis ...
Glyphosate herbicide may negatively impact beneficial soil bacteria in certain situations, study finds
As farmers battle in their above-ground war on weeds, they may inadvertently create underground casualties – unintentionally attacking the beneficial ...
