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.
Revising 10 fact-based perspectives on entrenched food myths: Gene editing is good, diet soda is fine, organics is not the answer
I’ve been trying to suss out true and false to the best of my inevitably human, imperfect ability, and for ...
Viewpoint: ‘Anti-technology activists unfairly malign genetically modified mustard crop that could drop pesticide use by 40%’
The polarised debate over genetically modified (GM) crops in India is back in the limelight. The advocates and dissenters of ...
If seedless watermelons don’t have seeds, how do we grow more of them?
Although seedless watermelons have existed since 1940, and have been widely available at grocery chains since the 1980s, they continue ...
Almost all supplements are useless, experts say. Here’s a few that offer some benefits
The U.S. dietary supplement industry has exploded in the last 30 years, growing from about 4,000 products in 1994 to ...
Here’s how we can overhaul our food and farming systems to grow enough food to meet population and climate change challenges
As consumers, our relationship with food – how we grow, produce and eat it, must change in response to increased ...
Viewpoint: Why does the French public fully embrace gene editing to cure diseases, but remain wary of use in agriculture, where it could help fight hunger?
French opinion has an ambivalent relationship with scientific progress. Welcomed with enthusiasm in the field of human biology, it is, ...
Joint Kenya-Uganda-Nigeria GMO research project develops blight-resistant, higher yield potato
Timothy Kipsang, a farmer from Kipkabus in Uasin Gishu County, has been growing potatoes on his farm for more than ...
Developing a biological balancing act: How can we target disease-causing insects while sparing beneficial ones?
Insecticides are our traditional way of defending ourselves against insects. But this approach presents several problems. For one, there is ...
Viewpoint: UK’s Royal Society advances agro-biotechnology regulatory reforms to stir innovation and reduce influence of large seed companies
The UK needs an evidence-led and proportionate regulatory approach for genetically modified (GM) crops to realise the technology’s benefits for ...
Viewpoint: Agriculture lobby offers evidence of neonicotinoid safety and critical role of pesticides
For the past decade or so, the area of seed treatment has grown in popularity, among ag retailers and their ...
Biological crop treatments: Farmers divided on whether they’re breakthroughs on the horizon or ‘snake oil’?
Whenever the topic of microbiological crop protection products comes up, the words “snake oil” can appear. Biologicals are said to ...
It takes 25,000 pounds of food to feed 4 astronauts on a 3 year mission to Mars. Here’s how ‘space farming’ might help feed them.
Rajkumar Hassamani, of the Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology at the University of Agricultural Sciences in India, told Al Jazeera Net ...
Farmers and seed producers welcome science-based reform to EU gene editing rules
At a Euractiv media event to mark the launch of the Breakthrough Institute/Alliance for Science’s new report on ‘new genomic techniques,’ ...
Analysis: Europe’s proposed new gene editing regulations are more convoluted and burdensome than plant scientists had hoped for
In 2018, after a ruling of the European Court of Justice put the latest breeding methods under the burdensome EU ...
3D-printed coral reefs? Can this new approach to reef decline revive coastal ecosystems?
Several acres of 3D-printed artificial reefs are currently being planted in coastal North Carolina to bolster the region's biodiversity and ...
37% yield increase: Almost all monetary gains from Indian GMO mustard will go to farmers, not to seed companies
Huge gains from biotech cotton commercialized [in India] two decades back notwithstanding, policymaking came to a standstill in terms of ...
Which is better to fight blindness — Golden Rice or Vitamin A supplement pills?
The story of Golden Rice did not begin last year, however, but more than 20 years ago with the idea ...
Glyphosate on trial: After three straight wins by people claiming weedkiller caused their cancers, large investor urges company to reconsider settlements
A California jury on October 30 found Bayer liable in a case brought by a man who claimed his cancer was ...
The first GMO was developed 50 years ago this November. Here are 8 key milestones in agriculture and medicine since
Half a century ago, the first genetically modified organism ushered in a new era of biological innovation. To mark this ...
China is the world’s top importer of soy and corn. Could dozens of recently-approved GMO varieties help boost production and curb imports?
China has approved dozens of genetically modified corn and soybean seed varieties for planting, in a breakthrough move that could ...
Animal fat texture and taste is extremely hard to replicate in plant-based meat. Here’s how next-gen alt meat companies are responding
Replicating fats in plant-based meat is an important part of getting its texture right. A range of ingredients, including a ...
It’s become axiomatic that the ability to eat meat helped spur development of intelligence in early humans. Let’s reassess
Modern man is a born meat eater, they reason, as a glance at human history shows. What's more, the mastery ...
Reishi, chaga, lion’s mane: Is it possible to verify trendy ‘superfood’ mushroom supplement claims?
Recent studies have shown that mushrooms are packed with essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and special compounds that are great for your ...
How China’s GMO rice is making salinated land arable for cotton and other seasonal crops
On the rim of Xinjiang’s desert, in a region where the soil is so salty that most vegetation refuses to ...
Glyphosate legal update: After winning 9 straight cases in defense of Roundup, Bayer ordered to pay $175 million to former weed sprayer who contracted cancer
A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury on [October 27] delivered a $175 million verdict against the maker of Roundup weed ...
Pumpkins against poverty: How this drought-tolerant fruit might prove to be sustainable boon in developing world
Pumpkins are an ideal plant for water insecure regions due to their tolerance of drought. Given their ability to withstand less water and ...
COP28: Farming is major part of agenda at this global climate crisis conference
Greenhouse gas emissions from farming and the land use change that often accompanies it, such as clearing forests and drying ...
