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.
Anti-GMO groups exploiting liberal fear of President-elect Trump
“It’s time to fight,” reads the subject line of an email from the organic-funded Just Label It campaign.... The fight? ...
Editorial: Boulder County rushed GMO ban without due diligence, broad farmer input
[Editor's note: In March, Boulder County, CO commissioners decided to ban cultivation of GMO crops on county-owned farmland. The following is an excerpt from an ...
Ecofeminist crusader: What makes anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva tick?
There is no figure in the anti-GMO movement that commands more respect than Vandana Shiva. An Indian writer and activist, ...
German food policy expert says supermarkets, not consumers, drive demand for GMO-free food
Contrary to what most North American farmers believe, finicky European food trends are not driven by consumer demand or ivory ...
Nigeria expected to introduce GMO rice, bean and sorghum crops within 2 years
The first set of genetically modified crops approved by the Federal Government is to be released in the country in ...
China’s resistance to reform biotech import approval process irks trade partners
An annual U.S.-China trade conference ended [Nov. 23] with little headway in getting China to reform the way it approves new ...
Ethiopia to commercialize insect-resistant, GMO Bt cotton within two years
[Editor's note: this article is a translation and has been lightly edited for clarity.] Ethiopia is set to begin commercialization ...
Genetic engineering could help restore endangered trees and boost natural ecosystems
Chestnut trees once dominated swaths of the Eastern seaboard. That was more than a century ago, before an Asian fungus ...
British farmers reassess sustainability benefits of GMO crops in wake of Brexit
Genetically modified (GM) crops are without a doubt the answer to feeding the world, farming experts told a GM debate ...
Health Canada proposes ban of neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid
Health Canada is proposing a ban on almost all uses of a controversial neonicotinoid pesticide called imidacloprid, saying it is ...
Are ‘GMO-free’ zones an organic industry marketing ploy?
Earlier this month, Sonoma County became the sixth county in California to successfully pass legislation banning GMO use in local agriculture.... While this ...
Growth in GMO seed industry will come from yield-boosting traits, expansion into wheat, rice crops
...[G]lobal planting of GM crops declined slightly in 2015, after two decades of rapid growth.... The markets for the crops ...
Food Democracy Now fined by Washington state for failing to disclose donors to anti-labeling initiative
An anti-GMO activist group was fined $319,281 by a Washington state judge [Nov. 21] for violating the same disclosure law that ...
International activist group, Avaaz, working to ban glyphosate in Canada, other countries
In the September issue of Country Guide I wrote about the Avaaz movement’s effort to ban glyphosate in “The Target is Glyphosate“ ...
97% of US farms are family operations, not owned by agri-businesses
Farms are getting bigger and the smallest farms aren’t real farms. ... But there’s another important part to this story: Consolidation ...
National Organic Standards Board wants USDA to exclude new gene-editing techniques
To protect organic crops and products form the “incursion” of rapidly developing genetic engineering, the National Organic Standards Board voted ...
Harvard’s Cass Sunstein questions how USDA will justify cost of GMO labeling
In a forthcoming paper, Harvard Law School Professor and former OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein argues that USDA will face a significant challenge in presenting the ...
Could genetically engineered plants save us from global warming?
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising, triggering global climate change, scientists agree. Researchers have been searching for ways to scrub ...
Proposal to ban GMOs in animal feed could cost Germany over $10 billion
[Editor's note: The excerpt was translated from the original German by Google translate and lightly edited for clarity.] [The Manager ...
Curtailing use of herbicides on corn could lead to sizable increase in fungal contamination
Environmental and economic issues affect decision-making for whether or not to control small infestations of pests and pathogens in crops ...
Computer scientist Stephanie Seneff’s latest bizarre claim: GMOs cause concussions
[Stephanie Seneff] is a computer scientist..... In a stunning example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, she feels she can take her computer expertise ...
Data analytics could increase agricultural productivity, sustainability
Twenty years from now, the most important tool for putting food on your table won’t be a harvester, combine or ...
Brexit may open the door for British farmers to grow genetically modified crops
Brexit may open the door for British farmers to grow genetically modified crops, according to plans being drawn up by ...
Myth-busting site Snopes judges Food Babe’s ‘shocking report’ of glyphosate in food “FALSE”
CLAIM: A new analysis of the residue on common American foods showed high levels of the herbicide glyphosate and Monsanto, ...
Could genetic tinkering with plant photosynthesis increase global food supply?
A decade ago, agricultural scientists at the University of Illinois suggested a bold approach to improve the food supply: tinker ...
Genetically tweaking plants’ sunscreens to boost crop yields
Just because plants photosynthesize doesn't mean they can't get a form of sunburn—damage caused by overexposure to light. That's why ...
GMOs and carbon fixation: Trapping CO2 in engineered plants and trees to convert it to energy
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may outgrow Frankenfood production. Soon, they may take over Frankenfixation, the industrial conversion of atmospheric carbon ...
