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.
Viewpoint: U.S. taxpayer funded UN sub-agency International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s broken cancer evaluation system hurts consumers and the regulatory process
TPAF [Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation] has even been able to use FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests to hold global ...
Bioenergy: Booster gene could naturally jump plant growth 30%
A gene called Booster has been identified in poplar trees that boosts photosynthesis and growth by up to 200% in controlled ...
35 years after Alar hysteria devastated the apple industry, there are more varieties than ever before. What happened?
[I]n 1989 the apple industry was hit with the notorious “Alar Scare” when the environmental group NRDC asserted that a ...
Global farming revolution since the 1960s: ‘A miracle of science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship
The global production of six major food and animal feed crops (corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, cassava, and millet) has dramatically ...
Viewpoint: NGO claim that crop pesticides has led to hundreds of thousands of poisoning deaths has proven false but activists don’t retract it
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” The sentence in the ...
How ‘clean food’ ingredients are opening a new frontier in skin care
The promise to support skin health, the immune system and the microbiome, among other benefits, is driving parts of the ...
What defines ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ and does it deliver real benefits?
While explicit promotion of “Regenerative Agriculture” is a relatively recent trend, it’s practical implementation typically involves a combination of already ...
Extreme weather is threatening global food supplies. What can be done?
As the world grapples with the challenge of feeding a growing population against an increasingly unstable backdrop, leading journal Science ...
Viewpoint: The downsides of the ‘clean eating’ fad
“Clean eating” is a dietary trend focused on consuming whole foods while avoiding processed and packaged foods with refined sugars, ...
Video: Feed the Planet: Building a cooler relationship between an Earth for 8 billion
George Steinmetz and Andrew Revkin discuss, Building a Cooler Relationship Between People and Planet, a new book covering how humanity ...
An alliance between Democrat Cory Booker and RFK, Jr.?
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker could potentially have a new and unexpected partner to push his objectives on improving ...
China barrels ahead in its quest to exploit agricultural biotechnology, leaving other countries behind
China has approved five gene-edited crop varieties and 12 types of genetically modified (GM) soybean, corn and cotton, expanding approvals ...
Mexico’s rejection of U.S. GMO corn and glyphosate not based on science, trade panel rules
United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai [has] announced that the United States has prevailed in its dispute under the United ...
Grocery store shoppers love organic food and regenerative farming but balk at having to pay for it
Joseph Balagtas is a Purdue University professor of agriculture economics and the director of the Center for Food Demand Analysis and ...
Ultra-processed foods are confirmed to be linked with cancer in a ‘powerful way’
Science has already linked ultra-processed foods to heart disease, inflammation, diabetes, and cancer. But new research out of the University of South Florida ...
What might food policy look like under the Trump presidency?
Donald Trump is in the process of filling out his second-term cabinet, and he recently announced appointees to lead the ...
Can agricultural robots cut down on weeds without chemicals or carbon-releasing tilling?
Weeds are the bane of all farmers. They compete with crops for soil moisture and nutrients and can block out ...
Hype or helpful: What does ‘clean eating’ really mean?
Eating clean sounds smart—in theory. Generally, the idea focuses on eating more whole foods and less ultra-processed foods. (Great!) But in practice, ...
‘Widespread disconnect between reality and public perception’—Why factory farming is superior to organic
[T]here is no evidence of any nutritional or health advantage from consuming organic produce. Further – and most people I ...
What is the future of no-till farming?
No-till farming holds significant promise as a sustainable agricultural practice that can help address some of the key challenges facing ...
GLP-1 Friendly: How Big Food is trying to leverage the GLP-1 weight loss drug fad
Packaged-food giant Conagra Foods is hoping to appeal to people taking weight-loss drugs with frozen entrees like chicken fettuccini alfredo ...
Say good-bye to vegan shrimp: Boom in vegan alternatives sputters out
What is made from seaweed, peas, and konjac root? That's right: vegan shrimp – or «vrimp,» as Nestlé called the ...
AI can help accelerate the transition to regenerative farming
Slightly preceding the global momentum towards regenerative agriculture has been a focus on the digitalization of agriculture. It offers benefits ...
Viewpoint: The case for gene editing in New Zealand
Gene editing and plant domestication are essential to protect food supplies in a worsening climate, according to an international team ...
Plants, cells, and microbes could help clean the environment but consumers seem indifferent
The challenge of our food system’s climate impact is only getting more tricky: richer countries tend to eat more meat, and ...
AquaBounty collapses: Its fast growing salmon—the first approved genetically-modified animal to come to market—couldn’t fend off anti-biotech activist smears
AquaBounty Technologies – the Massachusetts-based company that claimed to have found “a better way to feed the world” with a ...
If you develop health problems from eating ultra-processed food, who’s responsible—you or the companies that make it?
Coca-Cola and 10 other major food companies are accused in a lawsuit from a Pennsylvania teenager of "engineering" ultra-processed products to ...
