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.
Cultural differences over food and GMOs dog US-Europe trade talks
Everyone in agriculture—from farmers, to agribusiness executives, to the professors who conduct agricultural research—says that decisions ranging from what to ...
Plant breeding blamed for gluten problems but evidence isn’t there
Wheat—and the main protein it contains, gluten—has been cited as a cause of weight gain, “brain fog,” skin rashes, joint ...
Watershed: Records requests reveal abusive tactics of extremist GMO opponents
U.S. “Right to Know” (US-RTK) is a lobby group opposed to genetic modification (GM), and with the mandate to implement ...
Bolivia plans genetically unique quinoa brand to tap into gluten free mania
Australia and the United States, two of the world's biggest wheat exporters, are racing to become mass producers of the ...
Common additives in processed foods could cause inflammatory diseases
The ingredients that lend a smooth, stable consistency to ice cream, chocolate bars, and other packaged snacks may promote certain ...
Dicamba-resistant crops aim to fight ‘superweeds’ but critics worry about environment
To counter a "superweed" epidemic plaguing farmers, agribusiness giant Monsanto is steadily moving forward on the introduction of its next ...
Washington’s apple growers fear stigma by association after GM apple approval
The debate over genetically modified organisms didn’t end in 2013, when this state’s voters narrowly rejected an initiative that would ...
Are shrooms the new pesticide?
Scientists in Ireland have found that growing fungus inside barley helps the plants ward off disease. Brian Murphy, a botanist at Trinity ...
Feeding toddlers peanuts may prevent peanut allergies
It may sound radical, but it works: Eating peanuts slashes the chance of a peanut allergy, at least in children ...
Cult of ‘natural’ opposes modernity
The idea of genes being crossed from different species into another — the “Frankenfood” myth—may sound strange and “unnatural” when it is ...
Map highlights where cropland has room to grow
If we don't start producing more food, we're going to run out in the future. With world population growing and ...
Columbia Journalism Review: Anti-GMO group’s records request threatens independent research
U.S. Right to Know, based in Oakland, Calif., has asked at least four universities to turn over all correspondence since ...
Why do we trust science but not GMO crops?
Our daily lives are quite used to scientific innovations that we trust and use—mobile phone, radio, television, electricity, and even ...
Australia’s organic farm group warns lawsuits will follow lifting of GM bans
The lifting of bans on genetically modified (GM) canola in NSW and Victoria will trigger a landslide of lawsuits from ...
Burkina Faso’s Bt cotton success may spur Nigeria biosafety law revamp
Burkina Faso’s farmers will be cultivating BT Cotton for the eight season this year and they have benefited significantly from ...
In push for labeling GMOs, why not label mutagensis?
A federal bill that would mandate the labeling of genetically engineered ingredients in food or beverages sold in the U.S ...
Glyphosate not harmful to humans, according to food science
Two weeks ago, I girded my loins and wrote a column endorsing genetically engineered food. The spate of fist-shaking, chest-thumping ...
Technique used for GM mosquitos could be used to target agricultural pests
Back in the 1950s, two American scientists came up with a revolutionary idea to eliminate a longstanding scourge of livestock ...
Why people become skeptics of GMOs, vaccines and climate change
We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge—from the safety of fluoride and vaccines to the reality ...
Russian outfit plans to spend $25 million to secretly study GMOs
Back in November, a group that has campaigned against GMOs in Russia announced that it was going to do a ...
Union of Concerned Scientists join criticism of anti-GMO activist ‘attack’ on university researchers
The legal attack hit Kevin Folta in early February. After receiving a FOIA request from U.S. Right to Know—a nonprofit ...
Biotech could blunt predicted devastation of climate change
A study of wheat yields by 53 researchers on six continents, including a Kansas State University professor, has found that ...
GMO farmer borrows from organic soil management practices
Based on organic farming principles, regenerative agriculture builds soil health for continued use while cutting down on greenhouse gases. Based ...
Is organic grass-fed beef healthier than grain fed?
Almost always, when I talk to scientists and farmers about food supply issues — whether it’s farm size, organic methods, ...
US biotech groups lobby EU on 13 lagging GMO approvals
A consortium of U.S. commodity, seed and biotech groups has passed a letter to the European Health & Food Safety ...
Hershey drops bioengineered sugar from products
Just a day after competitor Nestle USA announced a similar commitment, the Hershey Co. said it will begin transitioning to ...
Food Babe’s shocking news: Food has chemicals in it!
“I couldn’t believe there was beaver’s ass in my vanilla ice cream, coal tar in my mac and cheese, yoga ...
