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.
Viewpoint — Agriculture without labels: It’s time to end the false dichotomy between organic and conventional farming
The debate on methods and techniques of agricultural production is usually fought between two extremes: large-scale agriculture, made in a ...
Viewpoint: Algerian newspaper makes case for agricultural biotechnology as key to limit climate change impacts
Genetic engineering has already been successfully applied to plants and animals in research to address the effects of climate change ...
Viewpoint: ‘Agroecology has better marks for biodiversity and soil health’ – UN panel urges communities to consider adoption
“Some might say agroecology is catching on in the world, and it is true that the momentum is undeniable,” says ...
Rwanda uses biotech potato variety to fight same blight that caused Irish Potato Famine — saving 80% of potatoes
Late blight, a potentially devastating disease affecting potatoes and tomatoes, infecting leaves, stems, potato tubers and tomato fruits, spreads quickly ...
Barriers to take-off of lab grown meat market: Producing cultured food at scale
The problems are daunting. The cells of living organisms are evolved to live as part of a body — a ...
What’s holding back the plant-based meat revolution?
Advocates of plant-based proteins hope that higher meat prices may eventually convince consumers to switch to meat alternatives if environmental ...
Viewpoint: Here’s the backstory on Sri Lanka’s organic experiment gone wrong
In an attempt to boost soil health and halt the progression of a kidney disease killing local farmers that was linked by ...
What is ‘Big Data’ in agriculture and why does it matter?
We should pay close attention. Agricultural big data is likely to have far-reaching detrimental environmental and social impacts ...
‘Unstoppable’ Varroa mites killing bees in Australia. Molecular keys may provide a way to protect the vulnerable honeybee
A University of the Sunshine Coast researcher is investigating whether spider and scorpion venoms have the potential to save Australia’s ...
Giving away free trees to address climate change? This company has plans to suck up CO2 with gene-edited forests
Living Carbon has developed a technique to genetically modify trees that can grow faster, and store more carbon. According to a ...
Wheat, nuts and shellfish trigger allergic reactions for many people. Why don’t other foods?
One of the adaptive immune system’s primary jobs is recognizing foreign substances in our bodies and unceremoniously rejecting them by ...
Viewpoint: What are key environmental trade-offs and advantages in transitioning to organic farming?
Producing enough food to provide adequate nutrition for the growing global population without wrecking the planet in the process is ...
How AI ‘robot bumblebees’ might dramatically improve pollination
Is AI taking over the jobs of bumblebees? Well, not exactly. Bumblebees are typically used to pollinate plants in glasshouses all ...
Viewpoint: Why commercializing GMOs would help Ghana and the rest of Africa address food shortages
A research scientist, Dr. Richard Ampadu-Ameyaw, has indicated that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have played major roles in addressing challenges ...
Making sunshine for crops obsolete? Food of the future will be grown 18 times more efficiently with the help of artificial photosynthesis
Scientists are creating food which will become independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis technology, with only about 1% of ...
Viewpoint: Don’t believe fear-mongering — Here’s why trace pesticide residues in food pose no risk to to humans
Everyone, including me, would like food products to be free from pesticide residues. However, the question is, would the world be ...
Viewpoint: Are reports that organic farming led to Sri Lanka’s economic collapse overblown?
Sri Lanka is now in the worst economic crisis they have seen in decades, schools are closed, fuel is in ...
British Medical Journal: Sri Lanka’s organic extremism led to an economic collapse and ‘devastating health consequences’
On 20 May 2022, Sri Lanka failed to make £63m ($77m, €73m) of foreign debt repayments. The default has made ...
Viewpoint: Another science review challenges activist claim that glyphosate in urine poses heath dangers
CBS News recently reported on a new government study that found glyphosate in more than 80% of urine tested from a representative ...
Lab-grown oysters? Here’s why seafood of the future will be cell-based and sustainable
Pearlita Foods has set out to make the first cultivated oyster meat. Its mission is to “harvest the ocean's finest ...
By 2050, there will be 10 billion people to feed. To meet the challenge, we need all technologies on deck — including molecular biology and genetic engineering
30 years of scientific progress on gene editing, countless studies involving dialogue with society, thousands of forums and debates for ...
Viewpoint: Green groups urge ending biofuel use to address global food shortages
Biofuel is derived from food crops, including wheat, maize and edible oils. The World Food Programme has warned that the rising prices ...
Food out of thin air: How this startup transforms carbon dioxide into protein
A few years ago, Dr. Peter Rowe began to explore ways to produce single-cell protein from carbon dioxide (CO2). Rowe ...
Powering plants with solar panels instead of photosynthesis might increase crop efficiency. But are companies overhyping potential?
The researchers used solar panels to run a machine that converts carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate—a molecule that ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lankan organic farming disaster foreshadows what could unfold if Europe moves ahead with Green Deal Farm to Fork plan
Sri Lanka adopted the first 100% organic farming program and imposed a national ban on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The consequence ...
Viewpoint: Why we must ‘learn to love genetically modified crops’
For decades, human consumption of genetically modified organisms has inspired misbegotten fear in consumers because few of us understand the ...
Podcast: Agricultural scientist Jayson Lusk on the intersection of biotechnology and sustainability
Agricultural economist Jayson Lusk puts forward a vision of how science, technology and innovation are what we need for a sustainable food ...
