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.
Lobby money flows into Oregon as GMO labeling vote nears
Oregon’s food fight is just getting started. A ballot measure that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods has ...
Indian ag minister: Biotech will play ‘significant role’ in second Green Revolution
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today pitched for biotech crops especially in eastern states for achieving second green revolution in the country. Opening a ...
Potato industry poised for approval of new GM variety
The biotech industry is working to shape a more balanced conversation on GMOs. Attendees at the Idaho Grower-Shipper Association’s 86th annual ...
Stonyfield founder Gary Hirshberg leverages ‘Vandana Shiva Affair’ to promote GMO labeling
Michael Specter’s essay in The New Yorker against labeling genetically engineered food is fraught with factual errors, and it misses ...
Brazilian transgenic eucalyptus trees that produce more wood target of global activists
Viewed from above, Brazil’s orderly eucalyptus plantations offer a stark contrast to the hurly-burly of surrounding native forests. The trees, ...
Activists blame GMOs and pesticides for monarch butterfly decline in west
As monarch butterfly populations dwindle to unprecedented low levels, activists say the colorful and far-ranging insects need protection of the ...
Faces behind the GMO labeling offensive
Organic activists claim 92 percent of consumers want genetically modified organisms (GMOs) labeled. It turns out the overwhelming majority of consumers support the status quo when ...
Vandana Shiva, activists confuse prejudices against Big Ag with debate over GMOs
The New Yorker has a fascinating article on Vandana Shiva, a crusader against GMO crops. I’d never heard of her before, ...
Will ‘genetically edited” crops diffuse the opposition to GMOs?
Recent advances in precise editing of genomes now raise the possibility that fruit and other crops might be genetically improved ...
Reflections on overturning of Kaua’i’s anti-GMO and pesticide restriction law
“So are you happy with the decision?” my sister asked as I fielded phone calls, emails and texts yesterday after ...
Why we should be concerned by anti-GMO conspiracy theories
Contrails are the wispy white clouds of frozen water vapor that streak across the sky in the wake of jet ...
Why I used to support mandatory GMO labeling and now don’t
I am opposed to government mandated GMO labels, though I started of in favor of them. In fact I helped ...
Michael Specter discusses his profile of Vandana Shiva
In last week’s The New Yorker magazine, Michael Specter wrote about the work of the environmental activist Vandana Shiva, who has, for ...
Do GMO seed companies control the world food supply?
Note: This is a summary of the publication Taking stock of the genetically modified seed sector worldwide: market, stakeholders, and prices ...
10 myths and controversies of GMOs by I Fucking Love Science
Genetically modified crops are a topic of intense debate that have sparked a lot of controversy over the years, fueled ...
BBC: Science can improve the nutrition of millions
The word ‘malnourishment’ conjures images of natural disasters, droughts and children with swollen bellies. But malnourishment is not just a ...
Vandana Shiva responds to Michael Specter’s New Yorker profile
I am glad that the future of food is being discussed, and thought about, on farms, in homes, on TV, ...
China GMO-Leukemia link debunked: How anti-GMOers scaremonger, twisting facts, manipulate Internet
The anti-GMO believers have learned that the constant release of tenuous, unconfirmed, even fake, information is critical to their misinformation ...
Environmental Working Group exaggerates toxic hazards in latest anti-chem/anti-GMO campaign
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released a blog post titled “Thousands Of Schools Would be Close To Toxic Spray ...
GMO critics say modified food is not ‘substantially equivalent’
Genetically modified Arctic apples from Okanagan Specialty Fruits in British Columbia, Canada, are awaiting deregulation by the USDA’s Animal and ...
Former director at UCLA School of Medicine Gregory Stark debates anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith
The Vail Symposium held a debate on GMOs and the future of food. The debaters: Gregory Stock is a biophysicist, best-selling author, and the ...
China GM revolution in low gear as anti-GMO activists spread ‘paranoia’ about infertility, safety
One of China’s major genetically modified food projects is now to all intents and purposes dead and buried. The expiry on ...
Liberal mag Nation on food fight: GMOs can provide sustainable food
In about 40 years, relentless dry spells may be more frequent across the Southwest, say climate scientists, and California may have ...
Should GMOs be grown in national wildlife refuges?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service did a huge disservice to science, wildlife and modern agriculture last month, when it ...
GMOs cannot be contained, endanger bees
When you boil them down, fights over what we eat — whether it's the antibiotics in livestock, or taxes on soda ...
Oregon independent citizens review panel says ‘no’ to GMO labeling
A 20-member citizens panel has narrowly voted against recommending passage of the Oregon Mandatory Labeling of GMOs initiative. The Citizens Initiative ...
What’s the future of Hawaii anti-GMO legislation in wake of rejection of Kaua’i ban?
A federal judge has struck down Kauai County’s ordinance requiring more disclosure from biotechnology companies about pesticide use and genetically ...
