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.
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 ...
European Commission seeks 5 to 7 year renewal of glyphosate herbicide—down from 10
The European Commission will seek to extend the license of glyphosate — the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide — for between five ...
Glyphosate levels in Californians’ urine increased in last 20 years—no adverse health effects shown
Levels of the herbicide Roundup in human urine have increased dramatically among California residents in the past two decades, a ...
Canada decides not to add further restrictions on dicamba herbicide, as US did
Health Canada will not be further regulating the use of dicamba herbicide sprayed on growing crops, as has happened in ...
Consumers confused about ‘organic’ and ‘non-GMO’ labels—but willing to pay more for both
Consumers are confused between foods labeled as “organic” and “non-genetically modified,” according to a new study led by a University ...
Disease-resistant GMO potatoes could hit Ugandan markets in 2020
Scientists have said the first batch of locally grown genetically modified potatoes will be on sale in Ugandan markets in ...
Is organic really better for the environment than conventional agriculture?
As the total global population continues to rise and economic growth drives a transition towards more resource-intensive diets, a growing ...
Monsanto sues Arkansas Plant Board for restricting dicamba herbicide use
A major agribusiness company sued Arkansas regulators ... for banning its version of an herbicide that's drawn complaints from farmers across several ...
Big data meets CRISPR: ‘Cloud biology’ platform could speed up gene editing crop improvement
Benson Hill Biosystems, an agricultural technology company, reports the launch of Edit, which is powered by CropOS™, a computational platform ...
Video: Coffee’s status as world’s favorite drink threatened by climate change, shallow gene pool
Climate change could spell disaster for coffee, a crop that requires specific temperatures to flourish and that is highly sensitive ...
Bangladesh to provide incentives for farmers to grow more GMO Bt eggplant
The government plans to incentivise farmers to produce more genetically modified (GM) brinjal [eggplant].... [Eggplant, also known as brinjal and ...
‘Supercharged’ GMO rice could increase yields 50 percent with improved photosynthesis
Researchers from Oxford University have taken an important step in a long-term project aimed at improving photosynthesis in rice. In ...
European Parliament votes to ban glyphosate by 2022 in non-binding vote
Ban household use now, agricultural use by end 2022 Risk assessments by the EU Commission must be made public EU ...
Plant growth genes identified that could lead to increased crop yields
Scientists say the discovery of a group of hormones in plants could revolutionise food production by improving yields. The Universities ...
Dow to sell new variety of GMO soy seeds in US despite no import approval from Europe, China
Dow AgroSciences will launch a genetically engineered soybean seed that has been barred by major importers under tight controls in ...
Activist case that glyphosate herbicide causes cancer mired in scandal
A perfectly useful herbicide could be banned in Europe thanks to a tangled network of lobbyists, lawyers and activists. … ...
Food industry aims to win public trust of CRISPR gene-edited crops and animals
There’s a genetic technology that scientists are eager to apply to food, touting its possibilities for things like mushrooms that ...
Video: How gene editing could help Kenyan farmers combat crop disease
In Kenya, maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND) has plagued crops and affected yields to the point where food security has ...
Viewpoint: Anti-pesticide activists exploit chemical testing technology to scare public
One religious group forecast an apocalypse a few weeks ago. They used the Bible as their source. More recently, a newer religion ...
IARC bombshell: WHO cancer agency ‘edited out’ draft findings glyphosate non-carcinogenic
The World Health Organization's cancer agency dismissed and edited findings from a draft of its review of the weedkiller glyphosate ...
‘Ecological Armageddon’? Three-quarters of flying insects in Germany vanished in 25 years, study claims
The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study.... Insects ...
Bayer to allow public access to pesticide safety information
[Editor's note: Adrian Percy is the Global Head of Research and Development for Crop Science, a Division of Bayer.] After ...
Ethiopia’s successful GMO cotton field trials prompt move towards commercialization
As [indicated by reports released by] Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), [Ethiopia's] field trial towards Bt cotton has now ...
Bipartisan group of 79 congressmen urge EPA, FDA to streamline agricultural biotech regulations
In a letter to three federal agency heads on Tuesday, a group of 79 bipartisan members of the United States ...
Why ChemChina’s Syngenta takeover doesn’t mean China will quickly embrace GMO crops
The head of one of China’s biggest chemicals companies has played down expectations the country will become more open to ...
Monsanto, DowDuPont execs discuss transformative impact of gene-editing and data science on farming
To find out more about the potential of [new gene-editing and data science technologies], The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman ...
