European Scientist
Gene editing legislation on horizon may signal new dawn for EU’s sustainability and food security potential
On July 5, 2023, the European Commission presented a bill aimed at the partial deregulation of plant varieties resulting from ...
Understanding links between energy and agriculture
My parents were Calabrian. During the first half of the 20th century, my father was an orange picker and a ...
Viewpoint: European Union’s proposed crop gene-editing deregulation plan still falls short
The European Court of Justice (CJEU) on 25 July 2018 stated that all products modified by genetic engineering with New ...
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 ...
80% of Europe open to rewriting rulebook on long-neglected gene-editing farming techniques
The European Commission (EC) started in April 2021 a procedure to change European regulations on some of the New Genomic ...
Europe’s precautionary principle hypocrisy: Allowing unevaluated bug-based food while banning safe GM food and crop chemicals
Since 2015, under pressure from an association of start-ups dedicated to insect farming (1), the European Commission has included several ...
French Academy of Agriculture’s Catherine Regnault-Roger challenges misinformation about crop genetics in her sweeping new book
Let's be frank: Rare are the scientists who have a sense of communication. Catherine Regnault Roger is part of this ...
How can we ‘climate proof’ our global seed system to increase yield and cut down on chemical usage?
We’re in a race against time to climate-proof our seed systems. Some estimates indicate that in countries faced with serious ...
Viewpoint: IARC has labeled cell phones, night shifts and coffee as likely carcinogens — but we’re not doomed. Here’s why we don’t need to panic
Over the years IARC has labeled red meat, pickled foods and salted fish, carpentry, working at night, using cell phones, ...
Viewpoint: European Greens defend organic policy, claim genetic engineering causes ‘uncontrollable, unintended and unsafe mutations’ in food — but this does not hold up to decades of evidence
A very dry summer alongside a low supply of fertilizer and energy spikes have created the perfect storm for the ...
Viewpoint: Essential to feeding the world, synthetic fertilizers have negative environmental impacts. Here’s how genetic engineering can change that
Much of the world is preoccupied with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but there are other global challenges, including climate change, ...
Can sex be chosen? Gene edited mice might provide an answer
Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Kent used gene-editing technologies to create male-only and female-only mice ...
Viewpoint: Global climate talks could expand agricultural research and genetic innovation to better address warming concerns
The worst-case consequences of rising temperatures and drought played out this year in Madagascar with the first famine induced by ...
‘Are we finally going to overcome the GMO dispute?’: New book explains why scientific proof is not enough to change anti-biotech minds
[European Scientist:] Are we finally going to overcome the GMO dispute? [Marcel Kuntz:] As Claude Debru points out in [the ...
Organic farming offers some nutritional advantages — but these benefits are limited. Here’s a science review
Stimulated by the distribution trade and various favorable promotional messages, the demand for organic food continues to grow steadily, despite ...
Bionic bird? Meet Mia, rescued from certain death by a plug-and-play prosthetic foot
[Researcher Oskar Aszmann has given] Mia, a bearded vulture, a new foot. This is the first time a prosthetic of ...
Beer and sustainable farming: How brewing waste can disinfect soil and increase yields
Despite the simplicity, beer brewing generates substantial amounts of by-products, including large amounts of spent grain, which are difficult and ...
‘Imposing expansion of organic farming by decree counterproductive’: Farmer, ag industry executive challenges Europe to rethink its anti-biotech, anti-nuclear ideology
In the midst of the Farm to Fork (F2F) debate and the renegotiation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the ...
Biological machine: ‘Living computer’ made by printing cells on paper
From tablets and laptops to PCs and smartphones, we have many electronic devices to fill every moment in our lives ...
Despite GMO skepticism, German Green Party may endorse crop gene editing to promote farm sustainability
[I]n June 2020, more than twenty officials from the German Green party signed a contribution entitled: "New Times, New Answers: ...
Viewpoint: Proposed EU fungicide ban would sabotage efforts to curb global food contamination
One of the biggest dangers to our food supply comes from mold through a process that’s all-too-natural. Mold thrives in ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s paranoid fear of chemicals fueled by disinterest in learning
In a season of resolutions, a site like [European Scientist] has one hope: that the 2020s will be the decade ...
East Africa faces two plagues: Once-in-a-generation insect infestation and swarms of European activists trying to block the only effective tool, pesticides
European activists are putting lives at risk in East Africa, turning a plague of insects into a real prospect of ...
Golden Rice approval in Bangladesh hits temporary snag but approval in early 2020 and planting by 2021 on track
Golden Rice was developed almost two decades ago by biologists Prof Ingo Potrykus of the Institute of Plant Sciences in ...
Viewpoint: On GMOs, energy production, ‘fear of progress’ is Europe’s main attribute
Shale gas, GMOs: here are two topics that usually arouse the public's worst fears. [Europe] has managed to ban the ...
Forest biotech scientists lobby against GMO tree ban to promote sustainable forestry
A group of leading forest biotechnology scientists from around the world call for the reassessment of all sustainable forestry certification ...
William Vogt vs. Norman Borlaug: How two intellectual giants shaped the modern GMO debate
In the book The Wizard and the Prophet, Charles C. Mann exposes the implicit controversy between two visionaries at the ...
May election offers Europe chance to embrace gene editing and ‘smart agriculture,’ boost sustainable farming
On May 26, Europeans will be able to vote to elect new MEPs. This election will no doubt provide an ...
