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.
Podcast: British scientist defends field trials of high-yield GMO wheat
[Editor's note: Listen to the full interview here.] Genetically modified crops may be in regular use by farmers in the United ...
GMO ban in Chinese province highlights major difference between public and government on biotech crops
Heilongjiang province, the bread basket of north-east China, has banned the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops – the country’s first ...
Insect-resistant GMO Bt rice poses ‘negligible risks’ to non-target species, study finds
Transgenic Bt rice expressing the insecticidal proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) have been developed since 1989. Their ecological risks ...
Only conspiracy theories left to challenge science consensus that GMOs are safe
I have been writing about the GMO scientific consensus for quite some time, because this scientific consensus for the safety of GMO ...
Here’s the truth about the non-browning Arctic Apple
[Editor's note: The story is a response to a February 2, 2016, post on STAT news written by a campaigner with ...
Global GMO food market expected to reach 130 million tons by 2021
As, the demand for GMO food is on a continuous rise, stacked traits, a mix of more than one transgene, ...
Hawaiian chef slices through anti-GMO propaganda
[Editor's Note: This article is written by Ed Morita, a pastry chef in Hawaii. He has spent over 15 years working at some ...
Sustainability: ‘Organic farming should embrace blight–resistant genetically engineered potato’
[Editor's note: This journal article is written by Godelieve Gheysenat, molecular geneticist, Ghent University in Belgium, and René Custers, regulatory and responsible research ...
New GMO corn study: ‘Transgenic maize is as safe and nutritious as conventional non-transgenic maize’
[Editor's note: Researchers studied the impact of GMO corn on rats in a 90-day feed study. For background on GMO safety ...
Infographic: 5 popular foods genetically modified by humans–before GMOs
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat a completely "natural" diet? Well, for starters, you wouldn't ...
Review of neonicotinoids’ effects on human health finds few studies, ‘methodologically weak findings’
Prior to 2000, neonicotinoid chemicals were virtually unknown, by farmers or anyone else. They have since become the most widely ...
Korean labeling law exempts food grown from GMO seeds with no GMO traces in final product
The government's new rules on genetically modified organism (GMO) labeling on products which will go into effect [February 4] is ...
Why Brazil’s cocoa market crashed–and how genetics is reviving it
Editor's note: This article describes a study by researchers at the University of Campinas’s Biology Institute and was published in ...
How to stem farmer suicides in India? Help farmers expand farm size
Editor's note: GMO critics, most notably philosopher Vandana Shiva (Read her GLP profile here), have long contended that the introduction of Bt ...
Friends of the Earth activist campaigner calls for increased regulation of ‘GMO 2.0’ gene edited food
Editor's note: Dana Perls is the senior food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth, you can read GLP's profile ...
UK votes support for first GMO crop since 1998, breaking with EU
A UK vote to approve EU proposals to authorise the first new GM crops for cultivation since 1998 suggests the ...
Cheaper blue jeans that are better for the environment? Genetic engineering can make it happen
Editor's note: This piece is written by Dr. Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, who was the founding director of the ...
Monoculture: Is it really the problem ‘intensive agriculture’ critics make it out to be?
Editor's note: The author of this piece is Andrew Kniss, associate professor of weed biology & ecology at the University of Wyoming ...
Tuberculosis-resistant cows developed using CRISPR gene editing by Chinese scientists
Tuberculosis has long been a problem for cattle farmers in developing countries, especially in Asia and Africa. Now, scientists from ...
Will consumers accept CRISPR gene edited non-browning mushrooms?
Marketers say the idea of a non-browning mushroom developed through gene-editing techniques is intriguing, although few seem to know if ...
‘Super yield’ GMO wheat gets green light for field trials in UK over critics’ objections
The GM wheat has been engineered to use sunlight more efficiently and has boosted greenhouse yields by up to 40%. Researchers ...
Drones and robots revolutionizing plant breeding, combating climate change
The use of drones and robots is also on the rise as researchers pursue the ‘quantified plant’ — one in ...
How hacking photosynthesis in tobacco can help scientists improve African staple crop cassava
Editor's note: This story describes a publication in the journal New Phytologist. The authors of this story are three of ...
India’s consumers rejecting state’s experiment to produce 100% organic: Food too expensive, less appetizing
[Amrit] Pradhan is one of 66,000 farmers from Sikkim [a state in northeast India] who are part of a far-reaching ...
Mexico unlikely to see GMO crops anytime soon after court reaffirms block on test plots over ‘environmental concerns’
A ban on planting genetically modified corn in Mexico is likely to continue for years as a slow-moving legal battle ...
What’s the skinny on 10 of the most popular GMO crops and foods?
In order to clear up some misunderstandings and outright lies about GMO, here’s a list of 10 examples of genetically ...
Former US agriculture secretaries: Dow-Dupont merger would encourage innovation, help secure America’s food supply
Editor's note: This article was written by Mike Johanns, former agriculture secretary under President George W. Bush, and Dan Glickman, former ...
