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.
What’s trendy isn’t always best: Why land-sharing and rewilding risk driving up food imports and accelerating biodiversity loss
Numerous studies show that some of today’s most popular conservation policies are doing little to help those species most affected ...
Multi-country effort helps develop gene-edited rice that both boosts yield and resists disease
Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and an international team of scientists used the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas to create ...
The enemy of my enemy is my friend: How plants recruit predators to control pests
Plants may seem defenseless against insects, having neither hands nor tail to brush them away. But many produce potent repellent chemicals, ...
Flipping the script: Gates Foundation funds ‘farmer-centric’ approach to developing next-generation agricultural technologies in the developing world
Across the world, agricultural scientists are starting to work backward. For years, they’ve seen how improved crop varieties — which ...
Viewpoint: The ongoing battle between technology and ‘buzzword’ farming approaches, from agroecology to biodynamics to regenerative to organic
“Genetic Engineering” (GE) has been practiced by humans for more than 10,000 years, first by selecting and hybridizing plants. For ...
Video: Do pest-resistant GM crops harm workers? Kenyan farmers say no, tout benefits of Bt cotton grown harvested in semi-arid region
Farmers from Kenya's semi-arid Mbeere region have embraced Bt cotton, a genetically modified variety, despite the discussions on the dangers ...
Viewpoint: ‘A crucial turning point’ — Italian researcher says CRISPR gene editing of seeds is crucial to prevent crop diseases
Italian agriculture could be close to a turning point, thanks to genetic engineering. This would make fruit and vegetables more ...
Viewpoint: Is US agriculture a toxic soup of factory farming, corporate greed and gene-altered crops? Debunking 10 myths that shape the narrative around modern agriculture
Here are 10 common myths about agriculture, debunked ...
‘We live in a changed climate’: Here’s what may happen to wheat crops as number of heat waves and droughts increase
The world is getting hotter, causing shifts in seasonal patterns and increasing the amount of extreme weather such as severe ...
Viewpoint: Mexico claims glyphosate and GM corn bans will increase ‘food sovereignty’. Here are the facts
On June 2, the U.S. filed for consultations with Mexico over its bans on genetically-modified (GM) corn and the herbicide glyphosate, invoking ...
‘It’s the only way we’ll have Cabernet Sauvignon in 50 years’ — Disease-resistant gene-edited ‘SuperGrapes’ can help farmers control pernicious powdery mildew that’s destroying vine crops
Powdery mildew comes from a fungus called Erysiphe necator that’s native to eastern North America. While America’s native grape species have developed ...
How can humans become an interplanetary species? Flies, fungi and microgreens
“Happiness is bacon squares for breakfast,” proclaimed Apollo 8 crew member Jim Lovell while midway to the moon in 1968 ...
Viewpoint: Climate crisis forces Europe to reconsider technology-rejectionist food and farming policies
Experts are advocating the use of new strains of gene-edited crops that are capable of surviving the punishing heat waves ...
22% yield increase: How non-photochemical quenching, or NPQ, could dramatically boost corn production
Awash in a rowed sea of its brethren, a corn leaf relegated to the lowest rung of its stem spends ...
East African Community member states urged to harmonize policies on waste management
East African Community member states should harmonize their policies on waste management because there is more value in tackling the ...
Podcast: Gene-edited avocados in development could stop quick browning and reduce food waste
The global consumption and trade of avocados have seen remarkable growth, but commercial challenges exist. A natural enzymatic process in ...
Lab-grown chicken: Upside Foods becomes second US company to secure USDA approval for cell-cultivated poultry
California's Upside Foods said on [June 14] it received regulatory approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the label ...
Viewpoint: ‘No magic wand will answer the grim tidings of climate change’’ — Asian farming experts urge wider adoption of technology in agriculture
The father of India’s green revolution, M.S. Swaminathan, once famously said: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance ...
Faster growth, higher yields, heat and drought resistance — Is there anything gene-edited seeds can’t do?
Israeli agtech start-up BetterSeeds distinguishes itself by its focus on a burning issue of the day that affects all crops ...
Viewpoint: Here are 10 misconceptions about reforestation benefits. There’s a better alternative
Public dialogue has emphasized potential benefits of tree planting while downplaying pitfalls and limitations that are well established by social ...
Still-unapproved CRISPR gene-drive could suppress fruit-killing vinegar flies
Researchers have developed a "homing gene drive system" based on CRISPR/Cas9 that could be used to suppress populations of Drosophila ...
Viewpoint: Protectionist food trade policies — ‘EU’s obsessively unilateral embrace of organic farming is intransigent, impractical, and inconsiderate of other nations’
As the World Trade Organization is meeting in Geneva... Biden administration officials have taken aim at Europe’s protectionist trade policies ...
Viewpoint: Genetically-modified mustard is key for India to reduce expensive imports of oilseed, a ‘prime guzzler of foreign currency’
India’s dependence on edible oil imports to meet its growing domestic demand has been cause of concern over the years ...
Climate-induced ketchup shortage? How AI and other advanced technologies are helping farmers navigate global warming
Three summers’ worth of unprecedented high heat in the world’s key tomato-producing regions—Australia, Spain, and California’s central valley—have led to ...
Disinformation works: Anti-biotechnology activists in Kenya succeed in undermining food security
In October last year, the East African nation lifted a decade-long ban on the cultivation and importation of GM crops, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Elites are reprogramming us to tolerate poverty’ — Green ‘degrowthers’ lobby against carbon-free nuclear power and high-production farming
Political elites throughout the developed world are embracing the ideology of ‘degrowth’. They now seem to believe that shrinking our ...
Will AI-optimized solar farms finally open door to more ‘clean’ energy — or are companies just angling for the next government green subsidy?
With the rise of ChatGPT and other artificial-intelligence chatbots, AI is everywhere, from your doctors office to your brokerage account. It’s also poised ...
