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.
Is the European backlash against cell-based meat a lobby-driven campaign?
[Recently] the UK became the first country in Europe to approve the sale of meat grown in a laboratory, giving ...
Seedless blackberry: What seemed impossible with conventional breeding is now a reality
Blackberry lovers everywhere can rejoice! NC State University alumna Lauren Redpath has harvested success by helping develop the world’s first seedless blackberry ...
How culture wars and ideological polarization are holding back the sustainable meat revolution
Just a few years ago, the alternative protein industry promised to revolutionize the way people eat burgers: They would still ...
RFK, Jr. claims chronic diseases are soaring, urges government to support litigation targeting agricultural chemicals such as paraquat and glyphosate
[Robert F Kennedy, Jr] sat down with The Detroit News Editorial Board, which is extending invitations to all major presidential ...
Startup Hatchless produces poultry from infertile chicken eggs — no slaughtering needed
Frustrated by “a lot of shortcomings” in the cultivated meat industry that held back production and increased prices, Hatchless CEO ...
US judge throws out case claiming paraquat causes cancer, suggesting tide may be turning against environmental activists’ bogus campaigns targeting safe crop chemicals
It’s big business in the US and elsewhere, with lawyers making a fortune out of class actions. The process is ...
Gene editing poised to save Florida’s citrus crop from greening disease spread by invasive insect
In 2003 and 2004, citrus yields were the highest in Florida history, at almost 300 million boxes, more than any ...
Viewpoint: Does atrazine turn children LGBTQ? Challenging crazy theories of right-wing conspiracy theorist and social media influencer Robby Starbuck
In recent months, major companies have publicly announced that they are abandoning their diversity efforts. In at least two cases, ...
Guilt-free dessert? Enzyme-boosted chocolate bar soaks up sugar in the gut — turning it into fiber instead
A guilt-free chocolate bar, full of sugar, could someday land at a supermarket near you ...
Singapore and Canada top list of countries most supportive of alternative protein and lab-grown meat
Australian think tank Food Frontier has compared the policies of 10 countries to determine which governments have the most progressive ...
Small farms in South Africa are vulnerable to pests and diseases. Here’s how investing in the ‘bio-economy’ can give farmers early warning signs
Smallholder and emerging farmers in South Africa are particularly vulnerable to plant pests and diseases, leading to significant yield losses ...
What happens when a country forces farmers to go all-organic? Sri Lanka, India prove powerful examples
What happens when a state or country forces organic production on all of its farmers? There are a couple of ...
Electrocuting weeds: Environmental and health concerns over herbicide use sparks quest for new solutions
As concerns over chemical usage and weed resistance increase, different technologies have been offered as alternatives to weed control. Recently, ...
Singapore becomes first country to sell lab-grown meat directly to the general public
It was a remarkable moment in the annals of food, perhaps even humanity: A store in Singapore started selling lab-grown ...
Podcast: Robo-restaurants, AI mapping farmland and CRISPR tomatoes
Tomatoes are thirsty crops. Here’s how CRISPR gene-editing could help them thrive with less water ...
From ‘lifeless dust’ to livestock farm: Farmer credits regenerative agriculture for soil transformation
In 2010, when Barry Meijer bought Meijer’s Rust near De Rust in the Klein Karoo, the soil was bare and ...
Video: Organic, non-gmo, gluten-free, keto? How food labels mislead us about health benefits
Dr. Mike Isratel of Renaissance Periodization explains how food labels can mislead consumers on the health benefits of eating their ...
‘Insufficient evidence that glyphosate causes cancer’: Australian court tosses 800-person class action lawsuit
There is insufficient evidence to prove the controversial weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, the Australian Federal Court has ruled ...
Viewpoint: Eating organic to help the environment? Think again
Organic food has become increasingly popular over the last several decades, and sales of organic food hit an all-time high in 2023 ...
State-of-the-art pig farm aims to pump out 125 pig organs for human transplant a year
The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted into people came from animals born on this special research farm in the Blue Ridge ...
Why organic food costs so much: Hand weeding
Organic food sales nearly doubled between 2013 and 2022, to more than $61 billion. The top seller, according to the Organic ...
Viewpoint: ‘Is your favorite clothing brand plundering ancient and endangered forests?’
You might think that wearing a top made from wood pulp would give instant eco-credentials – it is renewable, biodegradable, ...
Are cell-cultivated animal meat substitutes healthy for pets?
CULT Food Science Corp. announced that its subsidiary Further Foods Inc. plans to submit its feeding trial design protocol to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Clean eating’ trend — Does it make sense to rebuke all ‘processed foods’?
A new study demonstrates that eating primarily minimally processed foods, as they are defined by the NOVA classification system, does not automatically ...
‘Carcinogen of the day’: Steven Pinker on the irrational opposition to genetically engineered crops
In the book “Blank Slate: The Contemporary Denial of Human Nature” Steven Pinker writes that the widespread fear of all ...
Assisting evolution: Gene drives increase crop climate resilience while preserving diversity
Chinese scientists have reportedly engineered a way to use gene-editing technology to bypass natural plant behavior and force crops to inherit genes ...
Viewpoint: Why is the World Economic Forum waging war against modern agriculture and hurting developing countries?
The World Economic Forum says the world faces a new crisis, “One-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from food ...
