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.
Tastier and healthier Chardonnays in Italy: More sustainable fungal fighting gene-edited vines planted in Italian trial
“This is the first field trial with edited vines in Europe,” says Sara Zenoni, who teaches agricultural genetics at the ...
Precision breeding enable by gene editing edges closer to reality in the UK
The [British] Government has announced new laws to support precision breeding technology which will increase food production, reduce costs to ...
Insect farming (and eating) is booming in Africa but a backlash is growing
Insect farming is rapidly becoming a key player in sustainable. ... [I] as the fastest-growing sustainable protein industry in the ...
Feeding the Future: CRISPR gene editing key to preserving crop genetic diversity
Excessive farming of domesticated plants over the wild-type cultivars could threaten the conservation of the wild-type genetic variant causing genetic ...
‘Growing food in space isn’t exactly a walk in the park’
Picture a future where astronauts harvest fresh lettuce on the Moon and bake bread on Mars. It might sound like ...
Corruption, water scarcity, and outdated farming are undermining food security in Africa
Africa is grappling with a severe food insecurity crisis, with over 282 million people undernourished and more than a billion unable to ...
With urban expansion and reductions in arable land, vertical farming is thrust into the limelight
Vertical farming promises to revolutionize how we produce food in urban and extreme environments by optimizing plant growth through dynamic ...
Genetically modified mosquitoes could strengthen war on malaria
It’s been 127 years since British medical doctor Sir Ronald Ross discovered that mosquitoes in the Anopheles family are primarily responsible for transmitting malaria ...
Is there a market for hydroponically grown food?
Consumer behavior around food production remains largely disconnected from how the food they consume is actually grown. "The majority of ...
Once a pariah, genetically edited plants are coming to your garden center
The introduction of genetically modified plants into the consumer market brings with it both exciting opportunities and potential challenges. With ...
Pet owners are pushing for more sustainable food options
Pet food consumers are more likely to switch brands or products due to concerns about sustainability, according to a recent ...
AI enables first indoor vertical farm dedicated to berry production
Plenty Unlimited Inc. has launched the world’s first large-scale, indoor vertical farm dedicated to berry production. ... This marks a ...
Contrasting European Union and United States approaches toward sustainability and agricultural genetic modification
The food industry plays a key role in feeding the global population, but as the number of people is continuously ...
Wild wheat: Genetically-tweaked varieties that are not just climate-resilient, but also environmentally regenerative or in the wings
Modern wheat can thank its “wild relatives” — grassy cousins millions of years old and tested through extremes of earth’s ...
Viewpoint: Mass litigation targeting glyphosate could put beet farmers out of business
Glyphosate is used on 98% of Idaho's sugar beet acres, allowing those farmers to contribute over $385 million to our ...
A lack of funding in agriculture is crippling Africa’s smallholder farms and exacerbating an already present food crisis
[D]espite the estimated 41 million smallholder farmers in Africa producing food, many countries are still grappling with food crisis. The ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why we need a globalized regulatory standard for gene-edited crops
International Seed Federation members are calling for harmonised regulations on new breeding technologies such as genome editing to accelerate impactful ...
With only insect resistant Bt cotton approved, India set to address fate of genetically modified mustard and cotton
New Delhi: The government has begun the process of drafting its long-delayed policy on genetically modified (GM) crops, having set ...
6 novel ways technology is addressing ‘planetary problems’, from making bacon-tasting insects to turning food waste into energy
Demanding times call for adaptive measures. As the world faces escalating challenges, UBC researchers are thinking outside the box to ...
Is the public ready to eat bacon from a gene-edited pig? It’s closer than you think
Gene-edited pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) could be a commercial reality as soon as 2026 in ...
East African split on future of GM crops: Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are planting while Congo, Rwanda Burundi, South Somalia and Tanzania remain hard against
The East African Community partner states have failed to strike consensus on the growing and use of genetically modified crops, ...
Enhanced creativity and improved focus: The rise of mushroom enhanced beverages is waking up public interest
Startup bros, alt-health gurus, and baristas have been trying to reinvent coffee for years. We’ve had bulletproof coffee, turmeric lattes, CBD coffee, ...
Is organic food healthier? European study says ‘yes’ in many cases, but are worse than conventional in others
In a recent review published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers compare the health impacts of consuming organic foods to ...
Do cage free egg hens really roam free outdoors? Challenging 10 egg myths
In this article, we'll crack open the top 10 egg health myths we thought were true but aren't, separating fact ...
Can AI and precision technology be integrated into most farm operations without lowering productivity?
Recent advancements in agtech solutions offer growers the promise of streamlining their farm operations, maximizing productive output, reducing costs and ...
Viewpoint: Have green, ecological, and environmental movements lost the plot? Why demonizing GMOs builds a toxic narrative
Environmentalism should be a serious movement: important, vital, and a harbinger of innovations. [...] ... Let's look at some examples ...
Sustainability will take a huge hit if Canada models its future agricultural production after Europe’s broken precautionary approach to innovation
The European Union is rejecting these proven strategies through policies that dramatically reduce fertilizer and chemical use and ban modern ...
