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.
3D-printed fish? Cultivated filets could preserve dwindling fish populations
Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish ...
Australia slated to approve country’s first genetically modified crop: Disease-resistant bananas
Scientists have submitted Australia’s first genetically modified fruit – a Cavendish banana – to regulators for approval, saying it has ...
Snopes fact-checks claims by ‘deep state conspiracy grifters’ that US government adds COVID vaccines into our food supply
For several years, a collection of anti-vaccine activists, snake oil salesmen, anti-GMO activists, and deep state conspiracy grifters have been raising ...
Combining the best of organic farming with limited, targeted use of pesticides – and saving consumers up to 30%
Cost-prohibitive organic food is being disrupted by an increasingly popular type of farming called integrated pest management (IPM) where natural ...
Will plant-based seafood soon be on the menu?
Pearlita has spent “months and months” experimenting with shellfish alternatives in its leased commercial kitchen at the Piedmont Food Processing ...
Is there a connection between eating ‘highly processed foods’ and poor mental health?
One recent effort getting new life thanks to a sympathetic ally in corporate journalism is a "link" between ultra-processed foods and mental ...
Removing bitterness: Why do today’s Brussels sprouts taste so much better than when we were children?
It’s not just in your imagination that the Brussels sprouts you ate in your adolescence were, uh, potent, to say ...
Here’s why Mexico’s looming GMO corn ban could disrupt US global trade
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador published a presidential decree banning genetically modified corn in Mexicans’ diets, and ending the ...
Four billion American chestnut trees have been killed by a deadly fungus. Can genetic engineering help scientists build a better tree?
Over the course of the 20th century, an estimated four billion [American chestnut trees], one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing ...
Viewpoint: ‘Fake activism’ — How Indian activists promote misleading claims to sway public opinion against crop biotechnology and other science innovations
Fake activism is a dangerous tool that is used to manipulate public opinion and to further the interests of those ...
Why do some people love salty foods? It could be because they ate a fat-rich diet as a child
We are all aware of the importance of eating healthy food, especially during pregnancy. A high-fat diet has dramatic consequences ...
Podcast: Growing jetfuel? How genetically-engineered camelina is making sustainable biofuels a reality
The future lies in our farmlands — as the fossil fuels industry fades, crops like camelina, a flowering seed oil ...
Insect-resistant Bt eggplant recently approved in the Philippines could triple farmers’ incomes
The most destructive insect pest that attacks the crop is called the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB). Scientifically, it ...
What New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) are in the pipeline to address EU’s farming sustainability challenges?
During the April 25th meeting of the Parliament’s committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Stella Kyriakides, the EU Commissioner of Health ...
3D-printed cell-based fish? Sounds bizarre, but it tastes like the real thing and could eventually help save our oceans
Israeli firm Steakholder Foods announced that they’ve used 3D printing technology to make ready-to-cook cultivated grouper. They boast the taste and ...
Viewpoint: Mexico remains divided on GMO corn ban. Here’s what one farmer wants to happen
In Mexico, we buy significant amounts of corn from growers in the United States because my country doesn’t have the ...
Viewpoint: ‘The Amazon Rainforest is not only a natural heritage, but also a biocultural heritage.’
Until the turn of the 21st century, the ruling paradigm was that the soil in the Amazon was too poor ...
Can Hindus, Jews and Muslims eat cell-cultivated meat? Religions search for guidance as lab-grown food beckons
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate — a bellwether rabbinical council for religious certifications in Judaism — declared that an Israeli company’s lab-grown ...
China approves its first gene-edited crop, a soybean that raises the level of healthy fat oleic acid in the plant
China has approved the safety of a gene-edited soybean, its first approval of the technology in a crop, as the ...
Canada will not regulate gene-edited crops as GMOs: ‘As the agriculture sector faces challenge of climate change, innovation is incomparable tool’
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced updated guidance for seed regulations that will provide clear direction ...
Viewpoint fact check: Honeybees aren’t disappearing and GMOs do not cause colony collapse disorder
In 2020 the EU had approximately 19 million honeybee hives, managed by 615,000 beekeepers. These hives altogether produced 275,000 tonnes ...
Podcast: A scientist alerted a journal that an article was based on cherry-picked data. Its ‘response’ illustrates the challenges in counteracting disinformation
Scientists are encouraged to step into the public conversation around controversial work, especially when that work seems to deliberately misinform, ...
Edible insects: Cultures around the globe eat environmentally friendly bug protein. Why shouldn’t the United States?
Although edible insects are far from common in American and European cuisines, over 3,000 ethnic groups in 130 countries eat them regularly ...
As plant-based protein demand grows, roadblocks limit scaling up: Price, regulation, nutrition and more
In recent years consumer demand for plant-based protein has often outpaced the industry's supply chain capabilities. And as the alternative ...
CRISPR sausages? FDA approves the first livestock for food: gene-edited ‘experimental pigs’
A sausage at Washington State University has made history. WSU received U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization to have gene-edited ...
Fact: Genetically modified crops safe for the environment, farmers and the consumers
I have been involved with public education about Genetically Engineered (GE also known as GMO) crops and food for 25 ...
High-tech internet-connected precision agriculture provides myriad benefits to farmers and sustainability. How can it work better?
"Farming's come a long way, we're a little bit ahead of the straw hats and the overalls days now," [farmer ...
