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.
Uganda launches field trial of GMO bananas resistant to wilting disease
This banana has been engineered to resist bacterial xanthomonas wilt (BXW). The gene that conferred resistance is from sweet pepper ...
Using genetic modification to revive American chestnut trees could pave way to saving disease-threatened ash, elm, hemlock and walnut trees
Scores of tiny American chestnut seedlings that grow in a field in the upstate New York countryside could be the ...
UK could become gene-editing leader in farming post-Brexit
Scientists at the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, said [February 2017] that they had edited the genomes of pigs, rendering them ...
Insect-resistant GMO cowpeas could be available to Ghanaian farmers in 2018
Ongoing field tests on genetically modified cowpea (Bt cowpea) have produced successful results and will be ready for commercialisation and ...
Mike Adams, Alex Jones and Joe Mercola: How the web turns quacks into science gurus
Welcome to the vast universe of self-built social media empires devoted to spreading false, misleading, and polarizing science and health ...
Nigerian agriculture minister: Country has not officially embraced GMO crops but ‘we are watching’
Nigeria has not adopted Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or genetic technology in agriculture and food production. Chief Audu Ogbeh, the ...
Infographic: How GMO insect-resistant Bt crops work
[Editor's note: Karl Haro von Mogel earned his Ph.D. in plant breeding and plant genetics at UW-Madison, with a minor ...
‘Product versus process’ focus of GE crop regulation debate stalls biotech progress
[Editor's note: Jennifer Kuzma is a professor and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University.] ...
GM crop successes in South Africa offer hope for continent wrestling with climate change
[Editor's note: Wandile Sihlobo is an agricultural economist and head of agribusiness research at the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) in ...
Faster, more accurate crop breeding for today’s ‘gene jockeys’
Today’s new generation of plant breeders are often called “gene jockeys,” although they’re actually more like cowboys rounding up “genotypes” ...
Improved orange tree genetics could help fight yellow dragon disease in Florida
[Editor’s note: Kevin Folta is a molecular biologist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] When ...
Wrong message? Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen ‘pesticide-soaked’ fruits, vegetables to avoid may make us less healthy
Regardless of whether you’re a parent, an environmentalist, or just a plain old shopper, chances are you’ve gazed out over the supermarket ...
Organic 2.0: Biodynamic farming gains popularity in the US, but could it feed everyone?
National retailers like Whole Foods are stocking more biodynamic brands – but critics are questioning biodynamic farming’s ability to feed ...
Alaskan legislators, fishermen take aim at USDA’s approval of GMO salmon, want labels
[Alaskan] legislators have under consideration House Joint Resolution 12, urging [the US] Congress to enact legislation to require prominent labeling ...
Nestlé bucks trend, won’t add GMO labels despite activist pressure
The organic faction is back at it with its bullying tactics. This time, they're going after Nestlé. In a February ...
Video: Fruit, vegetable shelf life extended by spray made from plant extracts
[Editor's note: Watch the video here.] “We use food to preserve food,” [Apeel Sciences CEO James] Rogers said. They start ...
European farmers caught in middle of political battles over pesticide bans, biotech mergers
[Editor's note: Robert de Graeff is senior policy officer for the European Landowners’ Organization.] It is fair to say that pesticides ...
Pakistan nears 5-year deal with Monsanto for GMO cotton, despite opposition
The Punjab [provincial] government [in Pakistan] is finalising a deal with Monsanto — a leading producer of genetically modified (GM) seed — to ...
Are anti-GMO campaigns to blame for Russian soybean shortage?
While struggling to produce enough soybeans to meet domestic demand, Russia’s heavy reliance on imports has led to an inevitable ...
Golden Rice could help relieve vitamin A deficiency if countries ditch ‘misguided regulations’
[Editor's note: Justus Wesseler is a professor in the Social Science Department at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. David Zilberman is ...
Environmentalists pressure Canadian schools to drop food waste webinar because it mentions non-browning GE apple
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's profile on the genetically engineered non-browning Arctic Apple and the potential for genetic engineering to ...
Why hasn’t India embraced GM food as it did Green Revolution technologies?
[Editor's note: Vivian Fernandes is editor of Smart Indian Agriculture, a website devoted to promoting modern practices in agriculture including use ...
Switchgrass biofuel? New gene that makes plant sterile could ease contamination concerns
Switchgrass has been lauded as a promising source of biofuel.... Genetically modifying switchgrass could boost crop yields and its commercial ...
Green genes: Germany’s top organic researcher says environmentalists should embrace CRISPR editing
[Editor's note: The following is a Q&A with Urs Niggli, director of the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture in Germany ...
Even if organic food was as cheap as conventional, not everyone would buy it, study finds
[Editor's note: Jayson Lusk is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University.] I presumed most ...
How CRISPR gene editing can speed up domestication to make crops more sustainable, nutritious
Out of the more than 300,000 plant species in existence, only three species – rice, wheat, and maize – account ...
Washington state judge fines activists on both sides of 2013 GMO law debate
A Washington state judge has ordered the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Wednesday to pay nearly $1.1 million in legal fees, ...
