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.
Glyphosate free farming is not in any country’s near future
Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, is the subject of widespread controversy in scientific literature, media, policy, and society ...
Everyone refrigerates some of their food. Here’s why that may not be a great idea
Nearly everything on the American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. In her new book, Nicola Twilley ...
Video—Viewpoint: Nutritionist Dr. Sarah Ballantyne: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen vegetables and fruits is ‘fear-mongering’ and “not scientifically credible’
The Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list is based on the number of pesticide residue detections found on foods, but ...
Poland dodges crop genetic modification ban, renews use of GM as animal feed
Polish farmers will be able to continue using animal fodder containing imported genetically modified soya or other GMO crops for ...
6 ways Russia deploys its disinformation bots to smear the agriculture and food practices of the U.S. and West
In order to push its geopolitical goals, the Russian Federation uses multiple propaganda tools, with topics ranging from global and ...
How do we feed future astronauts on Mars?
Unrelenting radiation, along with electrostatic discharge from planet-wide dust storms, drove chemical reactions in the arid Martian dirt, ultimately leaving ...
Gene-edited crops and animals face a challenging and evolving global regulatory landscape
Our current food system is facing a myriad of critical challenges. The United Nations predicts that the world population will ...
6 problems CRISPR gene-edited agriculture helps solve
Genome editing with CRISPR and other tools is an exciting new technology with myriad applications from human health to industrial ...
How EU politics hold back one researcher’s quest to disease-proof rice
For over a decade, Vittoria Brambilla has been trying to improve crops’ quality, yields, and nutritional value. But the botany ...
Nobel Prize winner Emmanuelle Charpentier on why biotechnology-wary Europe should embrace plant gene editing
Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry Emmanuelle Charpentier speaks. The authoritative opinion of the French biochemist and geneticist who received an ...
Mexico’s president proposes extending the ban of genetically modified crops “for both health and the protection of biodiversity in the country.”
President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirmed the importance of the decree banning the planting of transgenic white corn in Mexico, highlighting that ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming and food will always be a niche product for the urban elite without significant health or environmental benefits
There are many claims that people make about organic farming. It is supposed to be healthier, more environmentally friendly, and ...
Insect-resistant, genetically modified Bt cotton revolutionized farming in India. Now it faces challenges. Here’s why
[Insect resistant] Bt cotton has played a transformative role in India’s agricultural landscape, especially in the cotton farming sector. Introduced ...
Video: Viewpoint—The opportunism of anti-chemical crusaders
Unless you think plants are little people, so you don't understand any science, it is impossible to believe a weedkiller ...
Exploring the sustainability challenges of genetically modified crops
Genetically modified (GM) crops are widely used around the world, but their effects on the environment need to be explored ...
Why bottled water is a bad choice for your health and the environment
When it comes to getting your daily fill of water, the safest option is from a store-bought bottle, right? Well, ...
Asteroids could make a ‘tasty treat’ in space
Astronauts embarking on long-haul journeys in deep space can’t pack all the calories they will need in the form of ...
Scientists racing to save disease-threatened bananas see potential in genetically modified varieties
Chiquita Brands International [has] bred a new banana called the Yelloway 1 that is resistant to [Tropical Race 4 disease] ...
Industrial intelligence: ‘A paradigm shift comparable to historic innovations like the horse-drawn seed drill in agriculture’
Industries across the board are on the cusp of a revolution driven by technological changes like AI, analytics and digital ...
Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past
In Africa, like anywhere, hunger is driven by many interwoven factors, not all of which are a consequence of farming ...
A call to lift Switzerland’s moratorium on genetically modified crops
The moratorium banning the commercial cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Switzerland will expire at the end of 2025 ...
On agricultural tech innovation and agro-chemical regulations, Canada has it right while the European Union is still flailing
Earlier [in 2024], Brussels was rocked by the publication of a secret legal opinion written by advisers to the European ...
Are weeds destined to win their escalating assault on agriculture?
Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to ...
Prawn lover? Gene edited giant crustacean should soon be widespread
Researchers in Israel claim to have bred the world's first gene-edited giant river prawn. The breakthrough was made by researchers ...
Salinity crisis: With salt affecting 30% of arable land worldwide, salt-loving plants may help enhance production
Budding new plant biology research is paving the potential to produce food crops that not only survive but thrive in ...
How AI is already optimizing food production
[A]rtificial intelligence, or AI, is already being harnessed to optimize food production. Technology products that are currently on the market ...
New Zealand poised to soften restrictions on genetically modified crops by the end of the year, green light gene editing
For nearly three decades, New Zealand’s strict regulations around genetic modification have more or less confined research opportunities to the ...
