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.
‘Like turning on a light-switch’: Gene-edited duckweed poised to revolutionize biofuel by eating up pollution and spitting out oil
Scientists have figured out how to coax copious amounts of oil from duckweed, one of nature’s fastest-growing aquatic plants. Converting ...
Viewpoint: ‘40% of all crops grown are lost to pests and disease’ — That’s we need regulatory reform and automation to promote gene editing
With between 20 and 40% of all crops grown being lost to pests and diseases, the UK agriculture industry could ...
Biomimicry and four other technologies that can limit carbon emissions from food production
Here are five major innovation trends that could help to curb the worst of the climate impact ...
Germany’s organic food market is shrinking. Farmers blame outdated regulations
Some 35,000 farms in Germany are organically run. But they have been hit particularly hard by record inflation as a ...
Addressing climate change’s impact on food and farming: Could CRISPR gene editing become part of the European Green Deal?
Following the adoption of the EU Green Deal, the European Commission has presented a new proposal for plant modification on ...
Challenging the belief that ‘eating soy-based foods can increase the risk of breast cancer’ and 9 other nutrition myths
Some false ideas about nutrition seem to linger in American culture like a terrible song stuck in your head. So ...
Viewpoint: ‘We’re pushing our food systems past their breaking point’ – Why acre for acre, algae is a model sustainable food
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), believe algae could be a new kind of superfood thanks to its high ...
Cuba poised for production of wheat modified by radiation mutagenesis that adapts to extreme heat and climate fluctuations
The history of Cuban science is full of the challenges faced by daring, diligent and, above all, persistent researchers. An ...
German Green ministers split on relaxing rules on gene editing crops to meet sustainability challenges
With the Greens leading both the German agriculture and environment ministries, many expect the country to stand against the Commission’s ...
Viewpoint: Challenging fearmongering — Environmental Working Group’s annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ uses chemophobia to scare people about safe produce
EWG claims that it is not out to scare the public, that it only strives to alert consumers as to ...
Meat made from milk? Dairy-based alternative ‘meats’ may soon be on the menu
Here comes the new field of “dairy-based meat.” Meats made from all natural milk. One of the most nutritious materials ...
Floating Dutch dairy farm produces 200 gallons of milk a day — Here’s how this quirky project offers an answer to rising sea levels and the ‘global land squeeze’
Samuel L Jackson can have his snakes on a plane. Peter and Minke van Wingerden have concocted something even wilder: ...
Europe’s sugar beet crop faces potentially devastating consequences in wake of EU court ruling blocking countries’ ability to grant neonicotinoid pesticide use exemptions
A European Union court ruling reinforcing a ban on neonicotinoids — a type of pesticide considered harmful to bees — ...
Viewpoint: Optimizing seeds — Hybrid and CRISPR gene editing technology key to addressing climate-induced food insecurity
In recent years, public investment into developing hardier crops that can withstand higher temperatures, water stress, and pests has flatlined. In countries ...
Next-gen food: Pigs, fish and other CRISPR gene edited animals will be be bigger and healthier
Of course, farmers have used selective breeding to try to make animals big, muscular, docile, and easy to rear for ...
China scales up commitment to genetically modified agriculture and food, approving 8 new crops
Chinese officials have given their blessing to a handful of strains of alfalfa, canola and other crops, offering a sense ...
Cellular agriculture: WIll synthetically-developed coffee, cultured meat and bioreactor-based dairy soften impacts of climate change, as supporters claim?
Cellular agriculture is committed to producing agricultural foods using a combination of synthetic biology, biotechnology, molecular biology and tissue engineering ...
‘No conservation concern with honey bees’: Xerces Society debunks claims that honey bees threatened but raises extinction concerns about some wild species
Around 2006, beekeepers started reporting huge losses of honey bee colonies. “That rang alarm bells,” said James Cane, a bee ...
Viewpoint: Why food security is central to national security — And why the EU Green Deal Farm to Fork strategy is the wrong approach
A recent poll of U.S. consumers found that nearly 72 percent were concerned for food availability during the early days ...
Hi-tech coatings and other ways to help slow spoiling of fruits and vegetables
The problem of rotting apples and mouldering grain may have been a matter of season-to-season survival for our ancestors. Today ...
A GM solution to help address climate change: Genetic tweak tailors rice to survive increasing salt and temperature levels
Genetically engineering rice to have better salt tolerance could allow it to be grown in places it would otherwise fail, ...
Viewpoint: Toxic torts — Taxpayers each pay over $1000 a year to subsidize ambulance-chasing lawyers targeting agriculture products
We’ve all seen the ads, declaring that we or a loved one may be entitled to financial compensation, soliciting claims ...
First bee vaccine: USDA okays oral vaccine for foulbrood disease that’s devastating bee populations
Some hopeful news has come from the United States about the future of bees, vital pollinator insects that often fall victim ...
After years of reports of widespread violations of ‘certified organic’ rules, USDA strengthens enforcement
The USDA has a strict definition of “certified organic,” allowing the label to be used only for products that meet ...
Ants genetically engineered for their antennae to glow green reveal how insects navigate the world of scent
Researchers have made transgenic ants whose antennae glow green under a microscope, revealing how the insects’ brains process alarming smells ...
Not so keen on decaf coffee? Gene-editing may make a near-perfect cup
Coffea Eugenioides plant, the genetic parent to Coffea Arabica, was almost extinct until recently. Arabica is the earthy, full-bodied, chocolatey coffee that most of ...
Viewpoint: Tapping the breaks on regulatory overreach — How administrative bloat set up roadblocks for crop innovation
The EPA’s “plant regulator” definition has caused alarm in the relatively new plant biostimulant industry because some of its products ...
