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.
Farmer suicides rising in non-GMO France, mirroring India’s crisis
[Anti-GMO activists, led by Indian philosopher Vandana Shiva [read GLP profile here], have endlessly repeated the claim that the introduction ...
CRISPR may help create oranges resistant to devastating ‘citrus greening’
The researchers' tools were chemistry class standards — glass flasks, test tubes and pipettes — but the task performed may ...
India should let farmers decide about GMO mustard
The GM mustard baiters have ... made a big song and dance about the bar gene, which makes the plant resistant ...
GMO grass could cut methane emissions from cows, improve milk yield
The grass is about to get greener thanks to DNA technology out of Denmark. Researchers say they've genetically modified a ...
Transgenics unnatural? Nature doing ‘horizontal gene transfers’ for eternity
There is [a] fatal flaw to the argument that GMOs are “unnatural” because distant species do not exchange genes in nature ...
Monsanto, Syngenta consolidation provides opportunity for smaller seed companies to flourish
Farmers might be worried about the multibillion-dollar deals transforming the agriculture industry, but independent seed companies see the consolidation as ...
NY State PTA proposal to ban GMOs in schools ‘contrary to science, common sense’
When it holds its annual meeting in November in Saratoga Springs, [New York State Parent Teacher Association] NYSPTA will vote ...
From caution to urgency: Climate change, poverty prompting Tanzanians to reconsider GMOs
...In the last 18 months, unusually high temperatures and a brutal El Niño have punished many parts of Africa with ...
Alison Van Eenennaam video: Animal geneticist on humane benefits of genetically dehorning cattle
Alison Van Eenennaam and colleagues at UC Davis, along with researchers at the biotech company Recombinetics, who aim to develop ...
France asks EU to regulate whether gene edited crops are GMOs
France has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the legal classification of products generated by new plant breeding ...
Boulder, Colorado finalizing plans to institute GMO ban, support for organic farming
Officials in Boulder County have released a plan to remove all genetically-modified crops from county-owned farmland within the next five years. ...
Adoption of GMO cotton in Zimbabwe could increase national income by $50 million
Zimbabwe has been urged to embrace genetically modified (GM) crops to improve harvests and reduce production costs as production in cotton ...
World Food Prize awarded to scientists who developed biofortified sweet potato
Four scientists have been awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for enriching sweet potatoes, which resulted in health benefits for ...
Anti-GMO-touted Italian paper claiming GM genes in blood and organs found to be fabricated
Earlier this year, a nutrition journal retracted an article about the potential dangers of eating food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), ...
Could GMO cassva prevent ‘konzo’ disease caused by cyanide in staple crop?
[K]onzo [is] a neurotoxic disease that people succumb to when they have nothing to eat except for the white roots ...
Voice of the Farmers event counterpoint to faux Monsanto tribunal
The [activist-organized, mock 'Monsanto Tribunal'] isn’t about Monsanto at all, but about stifling tools like genetic engineering, and agricultural chemicals ...
RNA spray could fight fungal disease in barley crops
Spraying barley crops with RNA molecules that inhibit fungus growth could help protect the plants against disease, according to a ...
Michael Pollan gets it wrong: Big Ag not the villain
Journalist Michael Pollan deserves credit for elevating the national conversation about food... But his latest piece in the New York Times ...
Kevin Folta, Borlaug CAST Communication Award winner: ‘Lead with your ethics’
[T]he winner of the Borlaug CAST Communication Award (BCCA) was honored at a World Food Prize side event, and this ...
Monsanto Open Letter challenges activist-staged ‘Monsanto Tribunal’ mock trial
For The Record: Mock trial distracts from real dialogue on the world’s food and agriculture needs and the full realization ...
GMO backlash: Has the world reached ‘Peak GMO’?
Technology opens doors; society decides whether to pass through those doors... . . . . If the Internet and the ...
Nature Editorial: ‘Appeasing US anti-GMO movement by agreeing to labeling will likely backfire’
Although a US law mandating disclosure of GM ingredients provides food companies with a way out of the labeling rabbit ...
Mark Lynas: India’s GMO mustard will bring cheaper hybrids, not increase herbicide use
In an interview with Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Mark Lynas, a reporter with the Cornell Alliance who reports on crop biotechnology around ...
Europe’s neonicotinoid ban contributed to one-third drop in Britain’s rapeseed
Britain's rapeseed harvest fell this year by almost one-third due to poor yields and a prolonged decline in the planted area which ...
WikiLeaks shows how Big Organic’s Gary Hirshberg ‘bought’ Clinton’s support for GMO labeling
The latest WikiLeaks dump of Democratic Party emails shows that one prominent Big Organic player gets his emails answered by ...
Scientists developing device to detect GMOs in the environment
...[R]esearchers led by Rice's Scott Egan, an assistant professor of biosciences, are building tools to detect, quantify and track the ...
Kenya: Should decisions on GMO maize field trials be made by politicians or experts?
Health minister Cleopa Mailu’s decision to keep on hold the planned trials of genetically modified (GM) maize on the basis ...
