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.
Kenya loses 60% of corn crop to stem borer pests annually. Insect-resistant Bt GMO corn could raise yields and cut pesticide use
Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) is a species of bacteria that produces proteins that are toxic to certain insects. Because of this, ...
Pest to protein: Indian aquaculture farmers explore economic and sustainability benefits of insect-based feed
Insects are emerging as a viable source of sustainable alternative ingredients – primarily insect protein concentrate or insect meal and ...
How to design climate-adaptive next-generation gene-edited plants while preserving biodiversity
A special issue of the journal PLOS Biology explores plant engineering as a tool to improve the climate resilience and carbon capture potential ...
Africa’s anti-GMO activists spread myths and fear but do not provide any scientific evidence
Since Genetically Modified Organisms were introduced in Africa, they have faced misconceptions and myths surrounding their safety, environmental impact, and benefits ...
Will US consumers ever get to taste gene-edited sirloin? It may depend on whether the FDA or USDA wins broiling regulatory turf war
The future of genetically modified bacon, steak and fish is at the center of a Washington food fight ...
Head of premier biotechnology research institute assures Kenyans genetically modified crops are safe, pose no danger to their health
I conducted some random research on the acceptability of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Kenya. I called some farmers I know ...
Climate change impact of food waste: ⅓ of our food is wasted contributing to half of agriculture’s carbon footprint
Around a third of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions comes from the global food system, and lost or wasted food is known ...
Viewpoint: Why much of what you’ve read about the health dangers of ultra-processed foods is wrong
The selling point of books like Ultra-Processed People is the idea that everything you know is wrong. Chris Van Tulleken, ...
Austria opposes EU plan to deregulate crop gene editing after uproar from organic farmers
The European Commission's proposal to ease current restrictions on genetically modified crops has riled up EU organic farming leader Austria ...
China challenges anti-GMO disinformation that floods the internet
A host of experts and officials have recently defended the safety of genetically modified food, as China seeks to bolster ...
AI accelerates development of pest-resistant and climate change adaptive seeds
While agricultural companies and farmers have a host of ways to tackle disease and pests, there are novel solutions on ...
Making waves in aquaculture: Norway approves plant-based omega-3 oil that replaces fish with biotech canola
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) granted approval for Aquaterra® Omega-3 oil for use in fish feed applications according to ...
Agricultural biosecurity: How can we keep food safe in a world of globally connected farms and pastures?
You’ve probably heard the word biosecurity referencing animal health, but many still ask what exactly is it? ...
Viewpoint: Pesticides in strawberries? Environmental Working Group scares people about safe produce but ignores chemicals applied by their organic mega donors
Environmental Working Group, the Extinction Rebellion of affordable produce, is always in a war on strawberries - unless they only ...
Two decades of propaganda from Kenyan activists threaten to undermine country’s embrace of sustainable agro-biotechnology
Across the country, people have formed a negative attitude towards genetically modified organisms (GMO) based on unfounded claims that have ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s proposed Green Deal is a “disaster under current climatic conditions”
Is Europe sufficiently equipped to cope in terms of food security and supply in the event of sharp rises in ...
Viewpoint: Deception and dirty politics are behind targeting of PFAS
With allied epidemiologists placed inside the US Environmental Protection Agency, and scientists pushed to the side, environmentalists feel like they ...
Viewpoint: Propaganda ring blurs science and feeds ‘toxic tort’ industry targeting Roundup and aspartame
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) cherry picks evidence, declares something is likely, probably, or ...
Understanding links between energy and agriculture
My parents were Calabrian. During the first half of the 20th century, my father was an orange picker and a ...
Viewpoint: Why proposed PFAS chemical bans might do more harm than good
News broke last month that 3M has agreed to pay out $10.3 billion in settlement payments in response to lawsuits ...
Viewpoint: Sustainable, natural, chemical, toxic — Words used by activists to label agriculture can distort science and turn the public against sensible farming
Reality is perceived by the definitions we give; the black and white lines we draw upon a grey canvas. So, ...
Synthetic alcohol: Booze with all the buzz — but without the hangover?
What if you could indulge in your favorite cocktails with no hangover or other ill effects? ...
What makes ‘ultra-processed food’ so unhealthy?
A recent analysis by the Access to Nutrition Initiative finds about 70% of food products sold in the U.S. are unhealthy — ...
Traits found in roots of desert plants could help crops survive escalating droughts due to climate change
Germinating Arabidopsis (thale cress) and alfalfa with a microbe taken from the roots of a common desert plant has been ...
A feast for bioengineered yeast? How leftover agricultural waste can be transformed into bioplastics, pharmaceuticals and fuel
Yeast has been used for thousands of years in the production of beer and wine and for adding fluff and ...
Bioengineer or die: The genetically-engineered toolkit plants need to survive a climate-changed future
Climate change is affecting the types of plant varieties we can cultivate, as well as how and where we can ...
Genetic mutation that makes apple trees grow like weeping willows could make laborers’ lives easier
Plant geneticists have identified a mutation in a gene that causes the “weeping” architecture – branches growing downwards – in ...
