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.
Nobel Laureate Sir Richard Roberts’ $4 billion dollar solution: GM moths could fight cabbage and broccoli pest, reduce insecticide use
The deadline to submit comments to the USDA on the proposed field trial of the GM diamondback moth is nearing, ...
Genome editing could save ‘genetically decaying’ cassava staple that feeds 1 in 10 people
For breeders of cassava, a staple food for hundreds of millions in the tropics, producing improved varieties has been getting ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide may reduce wild bumblebee queens’ egg development, lab study finds
Use of a common pesticide in spring could have an impact on wild bumblebees by interfering with their life cycle, ...
Controversy emerges over government-funded project to counter GMO food ‘misinformation’
The Food and Drug Administration will fund a campaign to promote genetically modified organisms in food under a bipartisan agreement to ...
Tackling hidden hunger: Biofortified genetically engineered foods increase iron, zinc and vitamin A
Back in the 60s, the Green Revolution changed the way we looked at food, both in terms of growing and ...
Former Boulder, Col mayor: Only people propagating threats and distortions are anti-GMO organizers
I recently read results of a survey in which 57 percent of respondents reported feeling "strongly" about an issue, yet ...
‘Follow the money’: Why the organic industry funds anti-GMO campaigns
Everything we eat has had their genes modified by humans at some point in history, and nothing we eat exists ...
US Right to Know’s Gary Ruskin linked to anti-science Russian ‘fake news’ site
[Editor's note: Alex Berezow is a senior fellow of biomedical science at the American Council on Science and Health.] RT is the ...
UK government advisors: Farmers’ emergency application for neonicotinoid insecticide use should be refused
The National Farming Union’s (NFU) application for an emergency authorisation for neonicotinoid seed treatments is not looking hopeful as Government ...
GM salmon farm won’t require new federal assessment, Canadian government says
A plant in eastern [Prince Edwards Island] that plans to produce genetically modified salmon will not require a new federal ...
Read the tea leaves: Decoded plant genome unlocks flavor secrets for future breeding
A team in China has decoded the genetic building blocks of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, whose leaves are used ...
China’s ‘consumer backlash’ against GMOs could spell crisis for US soybean farmers
A Chinese consumer backlash against genetically modified (GMO) crops is beginning to dent demand for soy oil, the nation's main ...
Popular TED Talks explore future of agricultural innovation, biotechnology
The well-known TED Talks is a clearinghouse of big thinkers and big ideas, and quite a few of them have ...
Video: WaPo investigation raises questions about large dairy farm’s compliance with USDA organic standards
[A] closer look at Aurora [Organic Dairy] and other large operations highlights critical weaknesses in the unorthodox inspection system that ...
Boulder County, Colorado’s GMO ban destabilizes the environment and economy
[Editor's note: Mara Abbott is the community columnist at the Boulder Daily Camera and a professional women's bicycle racer.] ["Economic, Environmental ...
Hazard vs risk: California’s Prop 65 relies on ‘flawed approach’ of WHO’s IARC cancer agency
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer here.] [Editor's note: ...
Genetic secrets of farming’s most notorious and persistent pest: Aphids
Aphids are some of nature’s most notorious pests...which causes physical damage and transmits pathogens that often render plants unsuitable for ...
Pro-Trump farmers worry they’ll lose lucrative GMO corn exports to Mexico if president rolls back NAFTA
[Editor's note: Mexico imported $2.3 billion of US corn in 2015, almost all of it genetically modified, according to the ...
Robust roots: Hardier, more sustainable, nutrient-rich GMO crops in development
The function of a plant’s roots go well beyond simply serving as an anchor in the ground. The roots act ...
Camera-equipped drones may soon detect plant disease before any visible signs
Researchers are developing drones that could detect plant disease before any visible signs show, allowing farmers to stop infections in ...
Kenyan scientists push for female farmers’ access to biotechnology
Dr. Felister Makini, Deputy Director General (crops) at the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), noted that African women ...
Former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack: Environment benefits when farmers plant GMO
[Editor's note: Tom Vilsack is a former agriculture secretary under President Obama and currently serves as President and CEO of the U.S ...
Gene tweaks could lead to improved corn and sorghum yields
Researchers at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have discovered a gene ...
Neonicotinoid ban cost UK farmers $23.7 million in 2016, while replacement pesticide use soared
The full cost to farmers of the neonicotinoid ban in 2016 was £18.4 million ($23.7) and resulted in almost 28,800 ...
Largest threat to honey bees in Canada? Bears
Contrary to what some headlines and marketing campaigns would lead us to believe, honey bee numbers in Canada are at ...
Video: Bill Nye finds people are terrified of GMOs — despite knowing little about them
Along with terms like organic and free-range, GMOs are a hot topic when it comes to our food. GMO stands for ...
Better beer? Sequenced barley genome could help breeders improve taste, other staple crops
Showing up in your cereal in the morning, your sandwich at lunch, and your beers or single malt Scotch whiskey ...
