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.
Plant-to-plant communication: Trees can warn each other of impending danger. Here’s how
Real trees on our Earth can communicate and warn each other of danger — and a new study explains how ...
Lab-grown meat could cost the same as animal meat by 2030. Will that sway grocery shoppers?
Lab-grown meat could see a significant decrease in price if it continues its current trajectory, potentially matching conventional meat costs ...
Viewpoint: 200 million Africans are chronically malnourished and 5 million die of hunger each year. The continent can’t rely on agroecology alone
A report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) indicates that despite a decade of pro-growth and ...
Viewpoint: ‘Those who want to improve standards of living and care for the environment should be appalled by GMO restrictions around the world’
The global controversy over genetically modified organisms is a classic bootleggers and Baptists story. Activists who mistakenly believe that GMOs are ...
Fabric of the future: This leather-like jacket is made of bacteria fed on fruit waste
What do you get when you feed bacteria with industrial fruit waste? “A yellow leather jacket” might not be your ...
Disease-resistant chickens? Gene-editing technology has potential to eradicate avian flu
A historic pandemic continues to rage, and it isn’t getting the attention it deserves given the virus’s toll. The outbreak ...
Background mutations: Why CRISPR-edited genes have to work together with thousands of naturally-evolved genes
For tens of thousands of years, evolution shaped tomatoes through natural mutations. Then, humans came along. For centuries, we’ve bred ...
Precision probiotics: Can this anti-hangover drink help you metabolize alcohol quicker?
Spoiler alert: Hangover ‘cures’ don’t work, observes Dr. Zachary Abbott. If you’ve overindulged the night before, Gatorade, herbal remedies and ...
Can Nigeria reach food security without genetically modified crops?
For Nigeria to attain food sufficiency to feed its current population of over 212 million people and reduce its overreliance ...
Disease-resistant gene-edited pigs could help revolutionize animal farming. Will consumers accept them?
When Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), as it became known, was discovered in the early 1990s, it was named, ...
‘Europe is already late to the party’ when it comes to recognizing economic and strategic importance of agricultural biotech. Here’s an urgent argument for change
European Union lawmakers are being urged to avoid too much risk aversion from holding back the potential of the homegrown biotech ...
Crop biotechnology: Is misinformation still winning?
The journal GM Crops and Food has begun posting a collection of invited papers on “GM Narratives and Misinformation.” ...
Ocean-bound fish farms are increasingly unsustainable. Land-based salmon farms can address environmental challenges
Salmon is the second-most-popular seafood in the United States, where the average American consumes more than three pounds a year ...
‘Win for science’ as French court dismisses defamation lawsuit by anti-GMO scientist Seralini
In a major victory for science, a French court on 17 October dismissed a defamation lawsuit by the notorious French ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based meats are too expensive for consumers to seriously consider
We need to transform our food systems in the next few decades. In most countries, meat consumption is still growing ...
EU-banned neonicotinoid sulfoxaflor does not harm bumblebees, concludes field-realistic independent British university study
A pesticide banned for outdoor use by the EU could be less harmful to bees than had been thought. This ...
Why do we love to eat rich, fatty foods?
Rich, high-fat foods such as ice cream are loved not only for their taste, but also for the physical sensations they ...
Study: Scientists should use social media to fight advocacy group disinformation about modern agricultural biotechnology
Stakeholders need to be enlightened more about genes and viruses as these are the most misunderstood aspects that might have ...
Viewpoint: How did glyphosate became the target of advocacy groups and tort lawyers — considering no global science organization concludes traces in our food pose cancer risks?
No, Roundup glyphosate sprayed in his garden did not cause Mark McCostlin's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a rare form of cancer), a ...
As climate change devastation escalates across Africa, crop biotechnology innovation offers science-based help
Changing weather patterns including rising temperatures, increasing drought incidences, floods and the proliferation of plant diseases are some of its ...
Podcast: Why do so many people who start a vegetarian diet not stick to it?
Eating less meat is good for your health and the environment. Now a new study suggests genes may play a ...
These beekeepers don’t want you to start your own honeybee hives. Here’s why
The craze for honey bees now presents a genuine ecological challenge. Not just in Slovenia, but around the world ...
The 2020-2022 plant-based meat gold rush is over. What’s next?
Sales of vegan burgers, nuggets or eggs have struggled as rampant food inflation and the cost-of-living crisis force consumers to cut back ...
Tomatoes that are delicious, not too fleshy and yet harvestable? With gene editing, they may be on the way
A supermarket tomato can be a delicate thing, easily squashed. Tomatoes grown for canning are a lot tougher. Even when ...
India’s commercial rollout of newly-approved insect-resistant Bt mustard could help the country acheive self-sufficient edible oil — unless activist disinformation scuttles it
Hunger problems arise from multiple reasons—lack of purchasing power and low food availability. India is self-sufficient in cereal grains but ...
As the EU ponders glyphosate re-authorization, French national radio site examines claims that glyphosate is harmful
Europe is preparing to re-authorize glyphosate for 10 years and as a preamble to this re-authorization, the media war is ...
Hot-weather cherries? Drought-resistant melons? Here are 8 new climate-hardy fruits and veggies on the horizon
Recent floods left more than a third of California’s table grapes rotting on the vine. Too much sunlight is burning apple crops ...
