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.
As dengue fever victims in Brazil tops 16 million, GM mosquito trial offers hope
Dengue fever is so excruciating that it is often called the “bone breaker,” causing severe pain in the joints and ...
Black Swan author Nassim Taleb claims GMOs could lead to eco-disaster
Before the crisis that started in 2007, both of us believed that the financial system was fragile and unsustainable, contrary ...
Facts behind celiac disease and gluten intolerance
Millions of people around the world are giving up gluten. I know why I stopped buying traditional bread and cakes, ...
Environmental Working Group wrong: Pesticide levels in food determined safe
A new analysis published in the International Journal of Food Contamination shows that pesticide residues in food are at levels ...
GMO myths hold back advances in eco-conscious farming
Few scientific avenues are as controversial in the public mind as genetic modification of crops. Many scientists are allured by ...
Feeding fish GM chow could protect wild fish habitats but anti-GM campaigners oppose it
Those who fret about overfishing and those who fret about genetically modified (GM) food are often one and the same. Such ...
Corn? Yes. Importance of corn in feeding planet
There’s a strong case that field corn, used as a grain, is the single most important food crop on the ...
Corn? No. Why we need to cut down corn production
Nowhere is the power and prowess of agricultural science so evident as in the Midwestern Corn Belt. Since the 19th century, ...
Monsanto’s climate data apps reduce inefficiencies in farming
Ron Moore is an Illinois corn and soybean grower. As a third-generation farmer, he has seen farm equipment change throughout ...
GMOs: Science vs People? Al Jazeera’s TechKnow features Kevin Folta, July 13
Al Jazeera's TechKnow Investigates: Genetically Modified Foods Is it Science vs. People? Is your food safe? Meet the scientists pushing boundaries ...
GM labeling proponents target glyphosate use in farming
Proponents of mandatory labeling of food products targeted U.S. agriculture's increasing use of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide ...
Anti-GMO activists claim Canada allowing import of potentially dangerous GM foods
After three years of discussions, Canada is close to finalizing its new policy on genetically modified (GM) foods that would ...
Genetic analysis of sorghum predicts best varieties for drought, stress
Differences in a crop plant's genes can help predict how a particular variety will respond to a drier or hotter ...
Safety has little to do with restrictive GMO regulations in developing countries
In the debate surrounding GMOs, a statement that is often made is that many countries have banned transgenic crops, which ...
Microbes and insects could boost plant health, improve farm yields
A plant may be rooted in place, but it is never lonely. There are bacteria in, on and near it, ...
Food industry adapting to non-GMO product trend
At the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists tradeshow, a supplier of non-GMO ingredients told me that the “non-GMO tsunami is ...
Despite anti-GMO claims, herbicide use is not rising
USDA-NASS recently published the most recent corn herbicide use data (from 2014). I’ve been looking through the data, because, well, free ...
GMO cereal plant that produces omega-3 fish oil, which could promote healthier diet, successful in landmark trials
A genetically-modified cereal crop that produces fish oil in its seeds has been grown successfully for the first time in ...
Challenging myths that hold Europe back from using GMOs
It is now four decades since the first experiments with recombinant DNA that led to a brief voluntary moratorium. It ...
Invoking ‘Monsantan’ and conspiracy theories pollutes GMO debate
The majority of modern Americans—and modern Christians—do not believe that Satan walks among us, preferring instead to identify the great ...
Organic label does not guarantee food is GMO or pesticide free
New York Times nutrition and health columnist Jane Brody recently penned a generally good piece about genetic engineering, “Fears, Not Facts, ...
Farmers caught in political debate whether herbicide glyphosate, used with GMOs, causes cancer
When Ron Krahn heard that a branch of the World Health Organization announced that glyphosate — the popular herbicide he ...
Sensationalist news on bees, neonicotinoids, ‘junk science’ leads to bad policy
Next to Congress, the least-trusted institutions in the United States include newspapers, television and Internet news, according to Gallup. But ...
Gene editing to avoid GMO regulations could be solution for food security
According to the World Food Program, some 795 million people – one in nine people on earth – don’t have ...
Seralini study another scientific outlier meant only as anti-GMO fodder
Seralini, author of the infamous study alleging to show increased rates of tumors in rats fed GM food, the one ...
White House taking steps to reassure wary public about GMO safety
The White House has a message for America: There's nothing dangerous about genetically modified food that makes it to your ...
GMO animals face expensive regulatory hurdles before approval as food
No one eats genetically modified animals. That is to say, human beings have modified almost every domesticated foodstuff, plant, and ...
