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.
Napiergrass: A potential biofuel crop?
A grass fed to cattle throughout much of the tropics may become a biofuel crop that helps the nation meet ...
Livestock genetics could be a valuable resource
Farm animal genetic resources are not only valued significantly for their current economic, environmental services social and cultural roles but ...
Farmers say Switzerland is not ready for GM crops
The farming community in Switzerland is not opposed in principle to genetically modified (GM) plants. But growing GM plants is ...
Australia: New joint initiative to promote biotech and GM in agriculture
A new industry group, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA) has been formed to promote and encourage debate on ...
‘Semi-dwarf’ trees may enable a green revolution for some forest crops
The same "green revolution" concepts that have revolutionized crop agriculture and helped to feed billions of people around the world ...
Labelling law for GMOs in Thailand produce
In the U.S. over eighty per cent of the soybeans, corn, and canola grown in the U.S. are Genetically Modified ...
Genomics create opportunities for dairy farmers
The advent of genomics has certainly played a heavy role in today’s popular genetics. Screening for elite males and females ...
Storm over GM maize study worsens
THOSE who hoped the study would go away will be disappointed. Claims that eating genetically modified maize gives rats tumours ...
Europe’s GM food fears reignited over controversial GM study
A recent French study claiming rats fed genetically modified corn suffered tumours has reignited Europe’s fears over GM food. Despite ...
Poll finds California’s Prop. 37 is likely to pass
By more than a 2-to-1 margin, California voters favor an initiative to require food manufacturers and retailers to label fresh ...
Report says ‘biotech crops help farm income rise $78 b’
A new research, conducted by the UK-based PG Economics Limited, has claimed that the use of biotech crops had resulted ...
Scientists uncover mechanism by which plants inherit epigenetic modifications
During embryonic development in humans and other mammals, sperm and egg cells are essentially wiped clean of chemical modifications to ...
New GM African cassava resists devastating viruses
Plant scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a new African cassava preferred by consumers and farmers that is resistant to ...
Scientists smell a rat in fraudulent genetic engineering study
Last week French microbiologist Gilles-Eric Séralini and several colleagues released the results of a long-term study in which rats were ...
UK: Modern genetics applied to 19th century potatoes
Researchers led by Professor Bruce Fitt, now at the University of Hertfordshire, have used modern DNA techniques on late nineteenth-century ...
New Zealand may reverse its stance on GMOs
The debate of whether New Zealand should grow genetically modified crops could be shifting away from the anti-GM stance the ...
GMOs and junk science: Pro-GM supporter questions latest study condemning GMOs
In some ways it’s remarkable that Rachel Carson is still controversial, as we’ve been reminded by this month’s 50th anniversary ...
American Medical Association reiterates support for GM technology
The American Medical Association (AMA) released a statement reiterating its position on genetically modified crops. It continues to recognize the ...
Genetically engineered rice: Protection from arsenic?
In an article this week, Consumer Reports is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to set standards for how ...
GM crops may not resolve food crisis, scientists say
Genetically modified (GM) crops have so far been promoted as the 'breakthrough' technology that will help resolve food insecurity in ...
Transgenic tomato withstands bacterial spot, yields more fruit
When a gene from bell and hot peppers is inserted into tomatoes, it not only imparts resistance to bacterial spot—a ...
Whole Foods endorses genetically modified food labeling measure
Whole Foods Market, the upscale seller of organic products and other "natural" foods, has endorsed a California initiative that would ...
Does GM corn cause cancer? A flawed study fails to convince
Last week a scientific paper appeared that reported that eating genetically modified (GM) corn causes cancer in rats. Specifically, the ...
GM corn could soon be used to make drugs
Genetically modified corn could soon be used to mass-produce the enzymes used in rare-disease therapies, according to new research ...
India: Parliamentary panel seeks stopping of trials of GM seeds
A Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, which examined in detail the prospects and effects of cultivating genetically modified food crops, sought ...
Noted European scientist defends embattled maize GM study
Scientists have hit back against the criticism levelled at the research linking the world’s best-selling weedkiller and a strain of ...
Under controlled: Why the new GMO panic is more sensational than sense
A new toxicology study states that rats eating genetically modified food and the weedkiller Roundup develop huge tumors and die ...
