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.
Video: How insect-resistant Bt GMO eggplant rescued Bangladesh’s staple crop
[Editor’s note: Pamela Ronald is plant pathologist and geneticist. She is a professor in the Genome Center and the Department ...
Petition urging Netflix to carry ‘Food Evolution’ movie gains steam
Netflix, the popular online video streaming service, provides a variety of genres that TV and Film have to offer. It ...
Activist witch hunt? PETA targets Yale postdoc researcher known for progressive research on bird stress
It started in May with a web post by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “Tell Yale University to Stop ...
Indian scientists criticize misrepresentation of GM mustard by anti-GMO protesters
The National Academy of Agriculture Sciences on Wednesday torpedoed the arguments of the anti-GM lobby on the indigenous genetically modified ...
Monsanto pushes back against Arkansas’ proposed dicamba herbicide restrictions
Monsanto Co filed a petition on Thursday [September 7] asking Arkansas agricultural officials to reject a proposed date next year ...
Impossible Foods opens first facility to produce ‘veggie burger that bleeds’ thanks to GM yeast
[September 7th marked] the opening of Impossible Foods’ new East Oakland plant, meaning that the cult veggie burger that San ...
Why Sweden doesn’t regulate CRISPR gene-edited crops as GMOs
[Editor's note: The following is part of an interview with Staffan Eklöf, of the Swedish Board of Agriculture.] Could you give ...
Korean agricultural research agency stops GM crop commercialization after anti-GMO protests
The Rural Development Agency (RDA) released a statement on September 1 declaring its decision to halt its efforts to foster ...
Viewpoint: 10 food additives that show ‘chemicals’ in our food are useful, not dangerous
Education and fear can’t go together, so let’s examine what some of the most common food additives are and what ...
Trial to decide whether coffee must be labeled as a carcinogen in California
Starbucks and a host of other coffee sellers are fighting a lawsuit that alleges roasted coffee beans contain low levels ...
Clean meat: Scientists serve up 100% real meat without cruelty, limited resources
The argument that “meat is murder” could become a thing of the past, thanks to groundbreaking technology that produces real ...
Namibia establishing first GMO research and testing facility
The National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST) is in the process of establishing a Biotechnology and Genetically Modified ...
In world-first, Japanese scientists use CRISPR to change flower color
In a world-first, Japanese scientists have used the revolutionary CRISPR, or CRISPR/Cas9, genome-editing tool to change flower color in an ...
Viewpoint: Science-based consumers push back against Triscuit’s non-GMO label
[Triscuit] announced its new Non-GMO Project verified label across its entire portfolio of products last month, with a television ad ...
Viewpoint: Government regulation of ‘natural’ label could backfire, hurt consumers—as it did for ‘organic’
[Editor’s note: Peter Van Doren is editor of the quarterly journal Regulation and an expert on the regulation of housing, ...
Viewpoint: Pakistan needs GM technology—not just fertilizer—to ensure food security
By adopting modern practices like use of genetically modified (GM) seeds, countries such as India, China and Bangladesh have succeeded ...
Video: How plants use natural chemicals and other defenses to protect against pests
For the most part, plants appear to be harmless and passive organisms at the lowest rung of the food ...
Could Bt African bollworm-resistant GMO cotton revive Kenya’s flagging industry?
Kenya National Society for Biotech Farming (KNSBF) chairman Daniel Mugo Magondu said farmers have abandoned the cash crop in droves ...
Viewpoint: Challenging claims of a global bee health crisis
[Editor’s Note: Howard Minigh is the President & CEO of CropLife International, a trade association of agrobusiness companies.] First, there ...
Xenotransplantation: Pig organ transplants into humans could be achieved as soon as 2019 in China
Chinese scientists are now desperately seeking government approval to launch a clinical trial for xenotransplantation. The goal is to have ...
Future of biofuels: Are alternative, sustainable, GMO bacteria-based fuels a pipe dream?
[Joule Unlimited] was designing a system that would produce diesel fuel or gasoline using nothing more than the sun, carbon ...
Dozens of ‘mysterious’ chemicals lurking in our ‘all natural’ fruits and vegetables?
Rutin, glycine, and beta carophyllene: if you saw these words on an ingredients list, you'd probably presume the food was ...
USDA approves extra-oil producing gene-edited camelina, not regulated as a GMO
A variety of camelina that’s gene-edited to increase oil content can be grown without undergoing the USDA’s regulatory process for ...
Kevin Folta sues NY Times, reporter Lipton for ‘malicious’ 2015 profile labeling scientist Monsanto ‘lackey’
In a complaint filed [September 1st, 2017] in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, [University of ...
EPA mulling 2018 partial ban on dicamba spraying because of drift concerns
The U.S. environmental agency is considering banning sprayings of the agricultural herbicide dicamba after a set deadline next year, according ...
French farmers warn glyphosate pesticide ban would halt conservation agriculture
[France’s Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot] reiterated Paris’ opposition to the re-authorisation of Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup. A vote on the ...
‘No GMOs, No Worries’? Milk producers ‘Peel back the label’ campaign challenges anti-science marketing
"Rampant fear-based food marketing" – most notably from brands touting their non-GMO credentials - is damaging consumer trust and “jeopardizing the ...
