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.
Another knock on processed food? New study suggests excessive amounts could feed cognitive decline
Eating highly processed foods like instant noodles, sugary drinks or frozen meals may be linked to a faster rate of ...
Exotic animals are off our plates for ethical reasons, but cell-cultivated meat could make cruelty-free substitutes a reality
London-based company Primeval Foods focuses exclusively on cultivating exotic meats, such as lions, tigers, and zebras. Similarly, the Australian company Vow Foods ...
India likely to see drought-resistant CRISPR gene-edited rice by 2026
A drought-resistant rice variety developed through the application of genome-edited technology for the first time in India, and is expected ...
Viewpoint: For centuries, grain yields remained stagnant — but they have tripled since 1960. We can thank biotechnology innovations
For centuries, yields for crops like corn remained relatively steady. Everything changed in the middle of the 20th century ...
Selling a myth: Former OXFAM development expert on why agroecology cannot address global food security
Agriculture shares with education the dubious honor of being a field of knowledge where everyone feels empowered to give their ...
Viewpoint: Could a GMO herbicide-resistant milkweed help save the Monarch butterfly?
Sobering news broke this month for those of us who love monarch butterflies – and who doesn’t? Those black and ...
40% yield increase: How tweaking one gene could create a super rice that adapts to climate change
Many people are hesitant to eat plants or animals that have been enhanced with foreign genes, citing health and environmental concerns, the ...
Viewpoint: EU’s approval to import genetically engineered corn for human consumption opens door for Africa to follow suit
The EU is among regions that have, for some time, resisted importing and cultivating genetically engineered (GE) crops. But this ...
Study: Why plant-based meats are healthier for you and better for the planet
There are increasingly strong reasons to move away from industrial animal agriculture for the good of the environment, animals, our ...
‘Feed Your Mind’: FDA releases guide on GMOs, emphasizing their safety, sustainability and occasional nutritional advantages
GMO foods have been available to consumers since the early 1990s. Since then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ...
Are robot bees a viable solution to pollination problems?
Every so often a headline will shout about the coming of the robo-bees, with the vision of a dystopian future ...
GM seeds likely to be in the hands of Ghanaian farmers by next year, scientists say
Ghanaian scientists say genetically modified seeds will most likely be in the hands of farmers by the start of the ...
Monsanto and BASF held liable for farmers who misused older formulations of dicamba, resulting in drift and extensive crop damage
The difference between farmers and meth cooks who misuse legal products has proven crucial in a court ruling with far-reaching ...
Maci Mueller: Pioneering revolutionary changes in livestock breeding through gene editing
Scientific innovator Maci Mueller is using gene editing to revolutionize the way that ranchers and dairy farmers perpetuate their herds ...
‘Solving Africa’s food challenges’: Will anti-GMO activists and other market obstacles block adoption?
“We're living on borrowed time,” says Wijnand Swart, a plant pathologist at the University of Free State (UFS) in South ...
Nigeria endorses safety of GMO foods
The Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, has restated that all approved Genetically Modified ...
Evolution of lactose tolerance: How humans (recently) became able to digest milk, cheese and other dairy products
In a study published [July 27] in Nature, researchers compared archaeological evidence for 9,000 years of European milk use with genetics, and found ...
US security report: China’s efforts to acheive food security seen as threat to steal crop biotechnology innovations and weaponize gene-editing tools
China’s efforts to achieve food security represent a threat to the US, according to an American federal agency focused on ...
‘Using insect biology against themselves’: New type of pesticide uses caterpillar pheromones to stop pests from mating
Scientists from the University of Missouri are on the edge of a new frontier in pest control: They are filling ...
Podcast: How gene editing can prevent devastating consequences from sharply rising temperatures
Propelled by climate change, future heat waves promise to increase in frequency and intensity, posing a dangerous threat to human ...
Study: How GMOs and crop gene editing can increase genetic diversity and help contain climate change
In this essay, we explore the potential of crop biotechnology to contribute to this diversification, especially in industrialized systems, by ...
Genetically-engineered disease-resistant potato eagerly awaited by farmers in Rwanda
Potato farmers have welcomed the government’s ongoing trials on the use of agricultural biotechnology in producing a new Irish potato ...
India debates new ways to make biofuels as sustainability threats rise
For many countries such as India, domestic biofuel production can reduce the consumption of imported fossil fuels, which provides economic gains, in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Mass tort litigation is a big business’ — How litigation mills are targeting agricultural chemicals
If you were watching television in almost any U.S. market in March and April, you probably saw advertisements soliciting would-be ...
Once insulated from bee health crisis, Australia invaded by honeybee-killing Varroa mites. How have other countries adapted?
Just three short weeks ago the bee parasite Varroa destructor was detected in Newcastle, NSW. Beekeepers and government bodies have sprung into ...
Next up on the lab-grown meat menu? Wild animals like wildebeest, springbok and impala
The global push to develop lab-grown meat is taking an exotic twist in South Africa, where slaughter-free cuts of springbok, wildebeest ...
Rice with longer roots, faster growth and up to 40% higher yields with just a gene editing tweak
By giving a Chinese rice variety a second copy of one of its own genes, researchers have boosted its yield ...
