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.
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 ...
French Association for Scientific Information rebukes hysteria-promoting anti-pesticide activists for endangering sustainable agriculture
We are witnessing a new campaign promoting unfounded fears. In terms of the media, it all started with an AFP ...
Africa lags behind much of the world in embracing crop biotechnology, and the result is mass undernourishment
The African governments must decide if they want to fight poverty in the continent or continue to plunge millions of ...
Cure for hay fever? Genetically modified rice that does just that in clinical trials
After more than 20 years since research kicked off, a variety of genetically modified rice designed to alleviate cedar pollen ...
Here’s why simplistically demonizing ultra-processed foods is shortsighted
The resurgence of rhetoric around the food industry “feeding us poison,” spurred by figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (and ...
Outdated regulations and slow adoption of precision agriculture limit China’s agro-biotechnology advancements
The increase in agricultural productivity over the past century has enabled a five-fold increase in the human population and about ...
Viewpoint: $3 billion a year industry exploits unwarranted fears about the dangers of ‘synthetic chemicals’
A [paper published in Science] claims that even at low doses pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are changing the behavior of ...
Is the fiber supplement psyllium the only supplement shown to really work?
In most cases, the supposed benefits of supplements popularized on social media aren’t backed by strong data. But there is ...
Podcast: Dr. Kevin Folta on the surge of disinformation about seed oils, glyphosate and genetically modified crops
Social media teems with false information about food and farming. Influencers cover Instagram and Facebook with claims that food is ...
Viewpoint: Is the criticism of organic food justified?
If you spend any time on the internet in spaces where people talk about food, nutrition, and the environment, you’ve ...
Video: Intransigent vegans: Look what happened when a financially-tottering California restaurant added regeneratively-farmed meat to its menu
A vegan restaurant chain has been forced to close for good following furious customers criticizing them for putting meat and ...
Pork from gene-edited disease resistant pigs should be on grocery shelves in 2025
[R]eports suggest that gene editing could bring us disease-resistant pork as soon as 2025. It’s been thirty years since the ...
Poop is helping to feed the world. Really
A new industrial facility in suburban Seattle is giving off a whiff of futuristic technology. It can safely treat fecal ...
The controversy over ultra-processed foods: Some are healthy, some are not
[One] study is helping to answer a pressing nutrition question: Which ultra-processed foods are harming our health—and which might not ...
