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.
Flushing fertilizer down the toilet: Human urine contains nitrogen and phosphorus — superfood for plants
Our urine contains what the body wants to dispose of. “But it can also put food on our table,” says ...
Viewpoint: Banning fledgling lab-grown meat industry nothing more than ‘conservative nanny states prohibiting the voluntary consumption of products that mostly don’t exist yet’
Last year, the Agriculture Department approved some companies to sell lab-grown chicken; other lab-cultured meats (such as beef, pork and ...
Mascara and eyeliner are mostly made from crude oil or mined minerals. This algae-based alternative could reduce the carbon impact of many cosmetics
Black pigment solutions are often derived from petroleum-based sources like crude oil, natural gas or coal. Each year, 8.1 million ...
Cows of the future: Bill Gates predicts that genetically modifying beef cows, with the help of AI, could help fight climate change
In a recent episode of his podcast “Unconfuse Me With Bill Gates,” the Microsoft founder offered the prediction that AI ...
Viewpoint: The case against banning neonicotinoid pesticides
As Consumer Choice Center, we believe that Bill H.706 – which plans to ban the use of neonicotinoid treated seeds ...
Talking trees? Do they quietly communicate through an underground fungi network? Here are the facts
A popular theory about how trees cooperate has enchanted the public and raised the profile of forest conservation. But some ...
Population growth, sustainability and the future of food
You are what you eat. Today, this famous saying comes bearing a question: What will we be eating tomorrow? ...
Viewpoint: Disinformation on alleged dangers of chemical residues on fruits and vegetables is not only bad science, it causes consumers to avoid produce
Peer reviewed research and Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) surveys among consumers and registered dietitians all show the negative impact of misinformation about pesticide ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka’s ‘tragic’ legacy — To encourage sustainable farming, countries cannot ignore food production and socioeconomic trade-offs
Sri Lanka is a particularly dramatic case showing how rash and poorly designed policies can lead to tragic consequences. In ...
Harnessing power of fungi could play key role in sucking CO2 from the atmosphere
Fungi is being put to use in a range of planet-friendly functions, from being developed as a non-polluting flame retardant to being ...
With Earth Day happening around the world, let’s focus on 10 of the biggest challenges to our global agricultural and food system
As we celebrate Earth Day, the importance of transforming our food system is higher than ever – here are 10 ...
Brewing resistance: Studying coffee’s genetic lineage provides clues on how to create varieties to survive climate change
A research paper released April 15 in Nature Genetics mapped the genome and considered the possible origins of the world's ...
Blue soybeans? Orange wheat? How a gene-edited splash of color could make robotic weeding much easier
Genetically engineering crops to be colourful could help farmers produce food without using herbicides, as it would make it easier ...
Viewpoint: Why recent setbacks won’t derail cultured meat revolution
Since Mark Post first introduced his cultured meat burger in 2013, the industry has attracted nearly US$3 billion in private ...
Viewpoint: Will India embrace a second green revolution — one focused on sustainable agriculture instead of yield?
Methane is a dangerous heat-trapping gas responsible for 47 per cent of India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The agricultural sector ...
Want to improve cholesterol and blood pressure? Swapping out meat for plant-based alternatives may not provide heart health benefits, study suggests
In new research, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists looked at how diets containing real meat compare to ...
Nutritional breakthrough: Genetically modified vitamin B1-fortified rice could help us overcome some health deficiencies
Vitamin B1 is an essential micronutrient for human beings. Its deficiency is the cause of numerous diseases of the nervous ...
Viewpoint: ‘If we follow science, organic food loses its apparent advantages’ — Harvard professor debunks organic produce myths
Organic foods, valued at over $75 billion, have long been touted as superior to conventionally grown foods, with some studies ...
Climate change agriculture: GM crops, no-till farming and judicious use of glyphosate and other herbicides help address disruptions, Canadian study finds
Ever since the first commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in the mid-1990s, researchers have considered the impact of these ...
Viewpoint: Why Greek organic-certified produce isn’t necessarily better or healthier than conventional food
Organic farming certainly has a lot to offer to humans and the environment, but that doesn’t mean it’s always better ...
Gene-edited chickens could reduce the threat of bird flu spread and promote sustainability
A solution may be around the corner to an avian flu outbreak that has led to the deaths of millions of ...
Viewpoint: Iowa farmer explains support for state bill to restrict suits against manufacturers of glyphosate and other pesticides that follow federal guidelines
I was proud to join my Iowa Senate colleagues in passing Senate File 2412 this legislative session. As a farmer, I know ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture has many different definitions. Here are 5 main principles — and whether they stand up to scrutiny
What is regenerative agriculture? Why is it different from sustainable agriculture? And how do I reconcile what practitioners of this system ...
Viewpoint: At a time where drought and global instability threaten global food security, gene editing offers solutions to combat pests, pathogens and poor weather
Later this year gene-edited crops will be planted at about two dozen commercial farms across England for the first time ...
Forty European health insurers press EU to regulate phase out of agricultural chemicals by midcentury
Forty health insurance mutuals from France, Belgium and Poland have jointly called on the EU not to abandon the goal of ...
Viewpoint: The keys to sustainable fishing lay in gene-editing and plant-based fish food
As worldwide consumption of fish increases and ocean fish are getting scarce, raising fish under the controlled conditions of aquaculture ...
CRISPR gene-editing technology heralds first generation of climate change resistant crops
CRISPR gene editing technology is beginning to deliver on a promise to quickly create crops with traits that withstand a ...
