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.
Fox News embarrasses itself as urologist, medical professor opine (wrongly) about GMOs
If you think you’re getting accurate science from Fox News’ Sunday Housecall, you may want to think again. A segment they ...
Big Ag uses social media to twist GMO debate
Many consumers and food activists use social media platforms to stay informed and engage in important debates about the future ...
Rep. DeFazio misleadingly links monarch butterfly decline solely to GMOs
Monarch butterflies are an unexpected victim of the widespread adoption of genetically modified crops, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said last ...
Will Ugandan farmers get to plant GM banana?
Bill Gates will be sharing his vision of how technology will revolutionize life for the world's poor by 2030 by ...
Parallel universe of scientists who doggedly oppose GMOs
A critical part of the scientific process is the conversation phase after the experimentation is done. Scientists share their findings with ...
Can color-changing flowers help change minds of GMO skeptics?
Nikolai Braun and Keira Havens, the two entrepreneurial scientists behind the Fort Collins, Colorado-based company Revolution Bioengineering, are in pursuit of ...
Organic agriculture’s low yields aren’t sustainable
The United Nations has estimated that food production will need to nearly double from 2008 levels by the year 2050 to ...
Indian farmers say GM cotton reduces pesticide use, improves yields
The debate over genetically modified crops rears its head every now and then, but for many farmers, it is an ...
Non-browning apple approved … Now comes the scare campaign?
The "rubber stamp" of regulatory approval, that takes millions of dollars and more than a decade to get, has been finally bestowed ...
Does it contain GMOs or protect rainforests? App scans food, provides label alternative
A new smartphone app may help concerned consumers bring social and environmental justice to the grocery store by supplying information ...
Survey of European attitudes on GMO milk suggests opposition softening
Public perceptions about genetically modified (GM) food products is shifting from wariness to a more positive attitude as I discovered ...
Producers of 70% of Africa’s food, women farmers shackled by GMO opponents
As a farmer in Ghana, I see the problems in farming every day. Farmers struggle with everything from the unpredictability of ...
Cardboard tasting tomatoes? Cutting edge genetic breeding to the rescue
At Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon’s only land-grant university, Jim Myers is quietly pursuing some of the most exciting vegetable ...
Young food scientists on why they stood up to Food Babe
In late January, a group of students pursuing graduate degrees in food science published an open letter to Vani Hari, ...
GMO seeds boost corn yields more than 40%
Throughout human history, as the world's population has grown, so, too, has the amount of arable land converted into farmland ...
GM ryegrass for cows that could boost milk production 15% faces opposition in Australia
Daily farmers in Victoria Australia are debating the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) ryegrass as peak representative group, United ...
Is there gap in federal regulation of newer GMOs?
Critics say a loophole in federal regulations for genetically engineered crops will backfire against biotech companies. Under current rules, USDA ...
Longshot federal GMO labeling bill reintroduced: ‘GM crops force farmers to buy more pesticides’
Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut along with Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., held a press ...
USDA grants approval of nonbrowning Arctic apple
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Healthy Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its decision to deregulate the first ...
Non-GMO sales skyrocketed in 2014
In the battle surrounding GMO labeling, 2014 was a huge year. A measure was narrowly defeated in Oregon -- and one ...
How Food Babe mobilized an army against GMOs and chemicals
Over the past three years, Vani Hari has rapidly become one of the most popular voices on nutrition in mainstream ...
In wake of new EU GMO restrictions, Wales proposes further tightening
On January 13, the European Union (EU) voted in favour of amending legislation in Europe that will allow Member States ...
Truth about small farmers: They can’t make a living
I wondered how many small farmers, like myself, actually made a living. I looked into national statistics. Only the largest ...
NY farmers could receive additional legal protection from GMO seed lawsuits
Farmers in New York state would be better protected against lawsuits from biotech companies if genetically modified crops inadvertently grow ...
Will gene-edited products be considered GMOs?
The genome engineering methods currently used, particularly in mammalian cells, are difficult and inefficient. This has led scientists to search ...
China jumpstarts GM, worries about ‘foreign domination’
China does not want its genetically modified food (GM) market to be dominated by foreign products (and thus foreign companies) ...
Kevin Folta on Biogate: It’s a ‘gotcha’ taxpayer-funded fishing expedition
Last week I received a FOIA request that all of my emails bearing certain terms were going to be obtained ...
