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.
Frankenfoods? Debunking 13 Myths Behind GMOs
Buzzfeed has joined the GMO debate, addressing some common myths behind GMOs using short, animated clips. Opponents of Genetically Modified ...
Uganda scientists develop wilt resistant banana
Researchers at Kawanda national agricultural research laboratory have developed new varieties of bananas resistant to the devastating banana bacterial wilt ...
Geneticist who helped commercialize world’s first GMO food signs “non consensus” on GMO safety statement
(Summary) Dr. Belinda Martinuea, a former member of the Michelmore Lab at the University of California Davis Genome Center, who ...
Labels could disarm the emotional and political triggers of GMOs
Grist's Nathanael Johnson examines the complex issue of labeling, outline some of the numerous problems and some of what he ...
Humboldt County, CA: Group hopes to put GMO ban on 2014 ballot
Ten years after legal flaws sent an anti-GMOs measure to a withering end at the ballot box, a new group ...
GM rice passes safety tests in China
Researchers at China’s Agricultural University have concluded that testing on transgenic rice has so far brought no abnormalities. The results ...
University of Hawaii anti-GMO scientist supports Hawaii Island Bill 113
Hector Valenzuela, professor and Crop Specialist at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, writes in the Honolulu Civil Beat that GMOs have not ...
Serbia to allow import of GMOs under strict control
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Dragan Glamocic said in Brussels on Tuesday that Serbia will change the law ...
University of Washington professor speaks out in support of I-522
The Seattle Times sat down with Phil Bereano, a professor emeritus of technical communication and co-founder of AGRA-Watch, a group ...
I-522 becomes most expensive initiative battle in Washington State’s history
A ballot measure in next week’s election will give voters the chance to make Washington the first state to require ...
Manila: Department of Agriculture allows field trials for GM crops
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops even as innovative technologies may potentially ...
Deconstructing the GMO debate: The difference between reason and ideology
In his blog Neurologica, Steven Novella, MD, argues that ideology is rampant in the debate over GMOs and it's important to ...
Costa Rica: Three out of four people don’t know what GMOs are, yet still protest against them
Even though many Costa Ricans oppose GMOs, "a staggering three out of four Ticos say they're not sure what GMOs ...
Analysis of Kaua’i County bill 2491
Biofortified's Karl Haro von Mogel breaks down Kauai's bill 2491, which passed in the Kauai City Council 6-1. He notes ...
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization report calls for better biotech efforts in developing countries
A new [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations] publication calls for greater national and international efforts to bring ...
With brinjal (eggplant) approval, Bangladesh joins GMO club
The National Committee on Biosafety (NCB) yesterday officially released [Bangladesh's] first genetically modified (GM) food crop, brinjal, which is infused ...
Oregon’s top newspaper on Washington I-522: Don’t back “irrational” labeling
The Oregonian, Oregon's largest newspaper, has released an editorial opposing Washington's GMO-labeling bill. The editorial board argues that this bill ...
Role of GMOs for food security in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
(Summary) The Center for Strategic & International Studies has released a report that investigates the current status of the GMO ...
Genetic mechanisms may cause herbicide resistance in weeds
(Summary) Farmers in Illinois have noticed over the last few years that the invasive waterhemp weed has become resistant to ...
UK Ecologist: GMOs produce ‘monopoly’ and ‘monoculture’
"My profound fear is that we will all be subjected to a greatly reduced number of mass-produced, unhealthy monocrop foods," ...
Proposed congressional bill bans the cultivation of GMOs in Costa Rica
Opposition lawmakers and environmental groups today filed a bill to Costa Rican Congress to establish a moratorium on the cultivation ...
Consumers Union says labeling would not raise food prices, backs I-522
On Nov. 5, Washington state residents will vote on Initiative 522, a referendum that would require labels on foods that are ...
Teenage anti-GMO Internet sensation now blogs on HuffPo
The 14-year old Canadian girl, Rachel Parent, the founder of "Kids Right to Know", who became a cyberspace sensation by ...
Hawaii anti-GMO activists influence policy by spreading fear of biotech
Reason's Ronald Bailey explores Hawaii's anti-GMO activists, who spread false information to advance their political goals. Both the Hawaii County ...
Cost/benefit analysis of GM crops in sub-Saharan Africa
The International Food Policy Research Institute has released a study on the impact of GMOs in African countries: A variable ...
Traces of glyphosate on crops are not toxic to humans
Anastasia Bodnar from Biofortified explains why the traces of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, are not toxic to ...
UK Environmental Minister: Consumers care more about cost of food, not GMO controversy
Consumers no longer care about the issue of GM crops, the [UK] Environment Secretary claims. Owen Paterson insisted genetically modified ...
