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.
High-elevation maize genes may hold keys to help crops adapt to changing climate
With the onset of climate change and changes in irrigation, adapting food crops to grow in diverse environments could help ...
South American farmers increasing acreage of Monsanto’s new GMO soy
South American farmers are expected to sow 57 percent more area with Monsanto Co's second-generation, genetically modified soybean seed Intacta ...
GMOs can address animal welfare, environmental, ethical challenges
[H]orns are dangerous, to both farmers and other cows. And so, for safety, millions of calves are de-horned each year, using a ...
Delayed by IARC designation, EPA glyphosate reassessment punted to next administration
For anyone who thought EPA’s glyphosate risk assessment would arrive sometime soon, think again. The new target is for the ...
Harvard’s Calestuous Juma’s book addresses why humans resist beneficial innovations like GMOs
From coffee to... genetically altered food, history is littered with innovations that sparked resistance before becoming fixtures in everyday life... ...[H]umans often oppose ...
Insect resistant ferns could hold key to developing next generation GMO crops
Genetic modification to common crops... has significantly reduced damage caused by insects that feed off plant leaves, but it has ...
Monsanto-Bayer deal reduces players in consolidating seed, pesticide industries
Monsanto Co.’s agreement to a takeover by Bayer AG... caps a whirlwind year and a half of deal making that has reshaped... seed and pesticide sector ...
US regulators likely to demand Bayer-Monsanto scale back domination of GMO cotton market
Bayer AG’s plan to acquire Monsanto Co. is likely to spur U.S. regulators to demand the sale of some cottonseed ...
False narrative that farming should be ‘natural’ distorts public’s view of GMOs
I believe that some false narratives have taken over the public imagination; and these make it difficult for facts to ...
EU’s delayed investigation of Dow-DuPont merger threatens to kill deal
...Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. hoped to merge "during the second half of 2016," the companies said in their July ...
USDA taking comments on labeling meat, poultry, eggs produced without GMO feed
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has set an Oct. 24 deadline for submitting comments on its program for approving ...
Chipotle-led campaign against Big Ag, GMOs mocks concern for customer health
Gathered for a free music festival, a crowd waits to see one of the headline attractions — an exhibit about ...
Second Green Revolution in India depends on well-tested GMO crops
As a part of its strategy to bring a Second Green Revolution, India must return to permitting... well-tested GM technologies ...
Monsanto reportedly agrees to sweetened Bayer takeover offer
Bayer AG has reached an agreement to acquire Monsanto Co. for about $56 billion to create the world’s biggest maker ...
FDA pondering whether ‘natural’ claims are meaningless
So what does “natural” mean? Nobody knows. Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed claiming that the term is used ...
Field trials of pest-resistant GMO cotton approved in Kenya
[The week of September 5], the NBA [National Bio-Safety Authority] allowed Monsanto Kenya Ltd to conduct field trials on GM ...
After Brexit, British agricultural biotech firms have big opportunity in China
Inspired in part by India’s “Green Revolution”, China has been keen to expand their area of influence in the agrichemical ...
Could GMO microbes provide new source of ‘natural’ vanilla?
World production of natural vanilla is tiny and has been falling in recent years... With demand on the upswing, trade ...
Is drought-tolerant CRISPR corn GMO?
With GMOs going off patent, anti-science activists and the PR groups running interference for them... are running out of time ...
India’s new pest-resistant GMO cotton uses gene from edible fern to resist whitefly
A new transgenic [cotton] variety is at India's doorsteps -- this one developed by the country's own scientists. . . ...
CRISPR crops could make agriculture more sustainable if public accepts them
Hopes are high for CRISPR, an emerging genetic technology that has been called “ground-breaking”, “jaw-dropping” and a potential boon for ...
Farmers struggling to counter activist demonization of safe herbicide glyphosate
Is agriculture reacting to the GMO debate when we should be focusing on protecting glyphosate? These are questions we need ...
Color palette, hardiness of ornamental flowers expanded by biotechnology
Roses are red and violets are blue, says the old romantic poem. But nowadays, roses can be blue, too, thanks ...
Highly refined foods like sugar contain no DNA. Should GMO labeling rules apply?
[N]obody—absolutely nobody—can tell the difference between sugar that comes from GMO crops and sugar that doesn’t. ...You can even have ...
Federal GMO labeling law temporarily nullifies local farmer’s market GMO rule
A new federal law has reversed a local farmers’ market’s requirement about labeling GMO produce. Congress approved legislation that requires ...
GMO mosquitoes could save Hawaii’s critically endangered birds
[M]osquitoes, which carry avian malaria, are a principal reason that just forty-two of more than a hundred species of native ...
Why poor may pay the most to satisify public’s ‘right to know’ about GMOs
The additional costs associated with product labeling, ingredient testing, insurance procurement, and continued consumer class action litigation over “natural” claims ...
