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.
GMOs safe but food producers not educating consumers on benefits
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are the future of the world’s food supply. But America’s GMO producers — including growers in ...
Australia: Verdict due in landmark legal battle over GM “contamination” of organic farms
Justice Kenneth James Martin is set to hand down a verdict this Wednesday - 2pm Perth time - in the ...
Two Nebraska farmers: There’s enough room for GM and organic agriculture
For Scott Kinkaid and Tim Nissen, the arguments over genetically modified food hit close to home. Kinkaid grows soybeans and ...
52 countries and 47 US states join anti-GMO March Against Monsanto
The March Against Monsanto took place late May in over 400 cities worldwide. As many as a million people are estimated to ...
Uproar among French scientists over acquittal of anti-GMO activists who destroyed experimental GM grapevines
French scientists are up in arms over the recent court acquittal of 54 anti-GMO activists who destroyed 70 experimental transgenic ...
Federal agriculture minister backs use of GM technology in Australia
Federal Agriculture Barnaby Joyce has weighed into the controversy over South Australian Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell’s appearance at an anti-Monsanto ...
GMO debate entrenched in 1980s narrative of ‘synthetic monsters’ and ‘mad scientists’ in Hazmat suits
I’ve explored the genesis and amplification of varied media narratives, from Jared Diamond’s collapse meme and Paul Brodeur’s power lines/cancer connection reportage to Vandana ...
Future GM foods like wheat, rice and salmon face even greater hurdles than today’s GM corn or soy
For many corn and soybean farmers in the U.S., the new normal is to plant genetically modified crops. But considering how ...
European Food Safety Authority greenlights Monsanto’s new GM soybean crop
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has delivered a positive scientific opinion on Monsanto's MON 87769 soybean crop, which has ...
Kevin Folta’s GMO primer: Genetic modification in crops is simply precision breeding
Eleven years ago when I began my career as a professor at the University of Florida, I would enjoy the sunny drives downstate from Gainesville ...
Are GMO food labels and a ‘right to know’ worth the price?
Whether the labeling debate continues to play out on a state-by-state basis, or the federal government eventually intervenes, chances are ...
Oklahoma State University’s chief wheat breeder claims GM wheat’s promises oversold
The wheat industry has been working for years to gain access to the same technology used to develop high-tech seed ...
All tools, including biotechnology, should be on table to fight global hunger
By 2050, the world population is predicted to increase from 7 billion to 9 billion people, a nearly 30 percent ...
Oregon’s Jackson county’s GM crop ban may face lawsuits based on state’s right-to-farm law
Opponents of a ban on genetically engineered crops passed by Jackson County voters say the prohibition is ripe for a ...
11 agricultural technologies that can safeguard food supply under climate change conditions
While the recently published Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warns that the worst effects of climate change are yet ...
Anti-GMO activists destroy rapeseed trial crops in France to protest mutagenesis, not realizing plants were not mutagenic
Protesters “completely” ruined trials across more than 1 hectare (2.47 acres) on a research plot in the southwestern Charente-Maritime region ...
Proposed biotech reactor would produce enough fake meat to feed small town
The movement to sell locally sourced, artisanal food and drink has picked up steam in recent years as many consumers ...
UK agriculture secretary Owen Patterson aggressively advocating GM crops in Europe
Europe is making another attempt to break its longstanding logjam over the production and marketing of GM crops. But huge ...
German poultry producers backing away from 14-year commitment to using only non-GE soybeans
German producers have decided to feed their poultry genetically engineered soybeans, which biotech proponents say bodes well for transgenic crops ...
New policies in Iowa to help grow state’s biotech industry
The close of the 2014 session of the Iowa Legislature brought new policy that will help grow the state's biotech ...
Honeybees and monarch butterflies on decline but GMOs are not to blame
Both honeybees and monarch butterflies are on the decline, and scientists have yet to figure out exactly why. Many critics are ...
Voters ban GMO crops in southern Oregon
Voters in two southern Oregon counties approved measures to ban genetically engineered crop. Jackson County voters approved a measure by a ...
GM key to battle growing impact of climate change on farming
Climate change is turning farm fields brown in the Midwest and around the world just as global demand for food ...
Critics challenge South Australian Agriculture Minister’s anti-GMO stance
Critics have challenged South Australian Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell to “put up or shut up” on the science and safety ...
GM alfalfa’s release in Canada delayed as farmers reject it
A GM version of alfalfa, a staple in livestock feed, was supposed to be launched in Canada this year. The ...
Are GMOs the left-wing’s climategate?
When Vermont became the first state last week to require labeling genetically modified foods, it was hardly alone. Maine and Connecticut have already passed ...
How insects evolve resistance to GMO Bt cotton
An international team has discovered what happens on a molecular basis to insects that evolved resistance to genetically modified cotton ...
