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.
Reviewing food labels: What do they really tell us?
The debate over the safety of genetically modified foods came into the spotlight when Chipotle, the popular Mexican food chain, ...
Would a Sygenta merger improve Monsanto’s image?
Monsanto’s unsolicited courtship of Swiss rival Syngenta AG has the potential to do many things for the agriculture giant. But could ...
Shoppers question validity of organic labels
Organic products are all over grocery store shelves and menus, but consumers don’t have much faith in the “o” word, ...
Monsanto launches PR efforts to combat critics of Sygenta takeover, glyphosate and GMOs
As seed and chemical maker Monsanto Co. woos Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta, Monsanto also is trying to win over consumers ...
In midst of church disagreement on global warming, will GMOs be included in papal call to action on climate?
Any day now Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, will be issuing a rare papal Encyclical ...
Bulgarian GMO researcher verbally attacked by activists
Question time following Irish scientist Padraic Flood’s presentation entitled “Why we need GMOs” saw raised voices as he came under ...
Organic food processor SunOpta to have first USDA-verified non-GMO label
A little-known but publicly traded organic food processing company, SunOpta, has persuaded the federal government that its system for detecting ...
Middle ground: Organic vs. conventional farming isn’t helping anyone
I'm pleased to see more people making the connections between our food choices, our health, and our impact on the ...
Wildflowers bordering crop fields may be reservoirs of neonicotinoids
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. A team from Sussex ...
Monsanto slammed for Syngenta takeover proposal
Once an industrial-chemical titan, GMO seed giant Monsanto has rebranded itself as a "sustainable agriculture company." That rhetoric may have ...
GMO label may not dissuade buyers but rather encourage sales
Opponents of genetically modified food claim that their demand for labeling is only intended to provide choice for consumers. In ...
GMO-free: Corporate irresponsibility trend
Pass any Chipotle these days — and it is my gastronomic preference to pass rather than enter — and you ...
Exposure to two neonicotinoids may reduce egg laying by queen honey bees
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Overwhelming evidence now suggests ...
USDA develops GMO-free label on behalf of unidentified company
The Agriculture Department has developed the first government certification and labeling for foods that are free of genetically modified ingredients ...
Activists in Argentina threaten life of biotech scientist Jose Miguel Mulet
Dear readers. As you know by the last post I am doing a tour to promote "Eat Without Fear" by ...
What happens if GM fish get released in wild? Lessons from GloFish suggest minimal concerns
In 2003, a flashy little fish swam into the U.S. market, becoming the newest fad — and the newest controversy ...
Hungary poised to become first EU nation to block GMOs under new regulation
“Hungary could be the first to introduce the new European Union regulations allowing countries to ban the cultivation of GMO ...
Honeybee deaths increase over past year
More than two out of five American honeybee colonies died in the past year, and surprisingly the worst die-off was ...
Politics of Indian farmer suicides
If the National Crime Records Bureau of India (NCRB) data is to be taken seriously, on an average over 15,000 ...
Removing antibiotics from food makes a difference, removing GMOs doesn’t
A lot of food companies are jumping on the transparency bandwagon. Panera, Chipotle, and Pepsi are labeling foods and removing ...
India changes tune and permits GM crop trials but states still block research
Five years ago, India was a hostile place for researchers testing genetically modified (GM) crops. Its government barred the commercial ...
Decades of research lead to new soybean diversity, rust-resistant soybean
It took decades of painstaking work, but research geneticist Ram Singh managed to cross a popular soybean variety ("Dwight" Glycine ...
In defense of Chipotle: GMOs may be safe to eat but they aren’t safe to grow
Critics of Chipotle’s new GMO-free menu claim the restaurant chain is pandering to paranoia and that GM foods are perfectly ...
Wheat genes could help revive American chestnut
Blight has made the American chestnut, once "the dominant tree in the canopy," a rare sight in the forests of the East ...
Why does public have selective hearing on scientific opinions?
How come we sometimes listen to scientific arguments, but sometimes disregard them entirely? Pew Research Center has done a survey ...
Video: Bill Nye explains conversion to GMO supporter
Bill Nye made waves last March when he changed his views on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) following a visit with ...
Parsing ‘anti-science’ argument of GMO proponents
Currently, labeling foods containing GMOs is purely voluntary. The Non-GMO Project coordinates an effort to label foods that do not ...
