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.
Could vertical farming revolutionize agriculture?
Plenty is no ordinary farm. Instead of growing greens outdoors, the farm grows its food on glowing, LED-lit 20-foot-tall towers inside ...
Genetically engineered coral might bring bleached coral reefs back to life
A coral reef takes thousands of years to build, yet can vanish in an instant. The culprit is usually coral ...
Census shows monarch butterfly population not in decline, but scientists challenge findings, blaming milkweed loss
Monarch butterfly populations have taken a nosedive over the last 20 years, according to researchers who monitor the number of ...
Scientists hoping to prevent two crop-eating caterpillar species from combining to form ‘super pest’
Australian-led research could help save the world's farmers more than $6 billion lost every year to its most voracious caterpillars ...
Ancient corn genome could unlock secrets of crop diversity and adaptation
[Kelly Swarts, a quantitative geneticist, and her] team sequenced the genomes of fifteen 1,900-year-old maize cobs found in [a Utah ...
Central bee health threat—Varroa mite parasite—may be manageable using oregano oil
The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is responsible for the death of millions of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies worldwide. Testing ...
Farmers’ ‘double whammy’: Drift damage from dicamba herbicide and then its subsequent ban
An advanced weed-killing chemical has twice come back to haunt Arkansas farmer John Weiss. The herbicide, known as dicamba, has ...
Dannon embraces controversial Non-GMO label for all its products, claiming ‘transparency’
By the end of 2018, all Danimals, Dannon and Oikos branded products for sale in the U.S. will feature the ...
Viewpoint: Greenpeace, environmental activists spread misinformation on honeybees and pesticides
Bloomberg reports some good news: Honeybee hive health has improved and so-called colony collapse disorder (CCD) is less of a problem ...
Frankenfood paradox: Why are (sometimes organic) seedless watermelons — chemical-created mutants — sold without a label?
[Did] you know that seedless watermelons are genetically modified, using a toxic chemical, even though they’re considered non-GMO ? If ...
Viewpoint: Why the FDA should not be regulating genetically engineered animals (as drugs, no less)
[Editor's note: Henry Miller is founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. John Cohrssen is former counsel to the White ...
Why hobby beekeepers may present the biggest threat to honeybee health
The much-publicized decline of the nation’s honeybee population is greatly exaggerated, according to the organizers of a new [Indiana] beekeeping ...
25 environmental benefits of GMO sugar? Industry launching ‘fresh look’ education campaign
To try to change consumers’ understanding and perception of GMO crops, the nation’s sugar beet industry is preparing a $4 ...
Canada approves 3 Simplot GMO potatoes that resist blight, reduce fungicide use by half
Three types of potatoes genetically engineered by an Idaho company to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine ...
Now under attack for minute glyphosate residues in its ice cream, is Ben and Jerry’s a victim or the culprit?
[July 2017], the New York Times reported that Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream products “have tested positive for glyphosate,” a widely ...
28-years in development, GMO salmon now on sale in Canada–while US caught in labeling battle
The AquaBounty salmon, called AquAdvantage, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon...In the ...
Sustainable wheat: New GMO variety could reduce need for fertilizers, preserve phosphorus
One of the troubles with agriculture is the need for farmers to apply fertilizer. The plants don't soak up all ...
US honey bee population rose 3 percent in last year as colony collapse disorder concerns ease
The number of U.S. honeybees, a critical component to agricultural production, rose in 2017 from a year earlier, and deaths ...
Kenya approves GMO corn and cotton field trials, defying health minister
The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) [of Kenya] has defied the Health ministry and announced field trials for GMO crops.... Speaking ...
Plant breeders call for sharing university seed patents to spur crop research, innovation
Universities need to get better at sharing patented seeds and other products of publicly-funded agricultural science if the United States ...
Turkey approves GMO corn, soybeans for animal feed
Turkey’s Biosecurity Council has approved the use of three types of genetically modified soybeans and one type of genetically modified ...
Canned tomato soup: How genetic ‘profiling’ makes it tastier, healthier and safer—at a bargain price
Over the past several years, billions of dollars have been poured into the ongoing research and development effort to improve ...
Vitamin-enhanced golden bananas could save millions of African lives—and corporations won’t own the patent
Bananas are one of the world's staple crops. In West Africa, they're as important to the local diet as rice ...
Infographic: How crops are genetically modified to resist plant viruses
Plant viruses can be serious pathogens in crops as they can cause anywhere from minor losses to total crop failure ...
Bio-weapons for good: Chemicals and genetics could battle havoc-creating zebra mussels
[Kenny Beckman’s lab at the University of Minnesota] expects to release...the first ever sequence of the entire genome of the ...
Regulatory delays of GMO crops in Africa cost lives and millions of dollars, study finds
Kenya, Uganda and many other African countries had the chance to follow South Africa's example of adopting genetically engineered (GE) ...
What happens when public realizes organic foods grown using pesticides, more prone to contamination?
Here are some shockers about how the “organic foods” phenomenon is costing you more, making foods less safe and costing ...
