Stuart Smyth
Articles written specifically for the GLP or the articles that are reposted from other sources (sometimes in modified form) with permission list the source as Genetic Literacy Project. Excerpted articles list the original media outlet as the source. Excerpts are posted under guidelines for Fair Use and Creative Commons for educational nonprofits (501c3). The GLP’s Fair Use policy for posting excerpts and using images is explained here.
Many shoppers prefer organic food—unless GM products are cheaper, Canadian survey finds
Agricultural biotechnology produced genetically modified (GM) crops, not only provide economic benefits to farmers, but are beneficial to the environmental, ...
Viewpoint: Nobel Prize for CRISPR refutes anti-GMO activist rhetoric about crop gene editing
The year is coming to an end, and 2020 has popped a balloon filled with myths, untruths and lies deliberately ...
Can GM corn eliminate insecticide use? For some farmers, the answer is yes, study shows
Maize production is one of the most important activities for the Honduran economy, both in terms of area cultivated and ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s ‘nonsensical regulatory system’ blocks GMO seeds but circumvents biotech ban to exempt gene-edited COVID vaccines
As consumers, we all want to be reassured that the products we purchase are safe for us to use and ...
Viewpoint: Rush to develop COVID vaccine highlights failure of Europe’s GM crop regulations
In a recent article of mine published in the journal, Global Food Security, I highlight the EU’s reluctance to move ...
Spillover effect: Could GMO disinformation shake public trust in other scientific innovations?
In 2016, the World Economic Forum listed online digital misinformation as one of the leading threats to modern societies. Campaigns ...
Webinar: GLP’s Jon Entine, science communicators address agricultural biotechnology misinformation
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) released a new paper, The Importance of Communicating Empirically Based Science for Society. In ...
Viewpoint: Why grow GMOs? To prevent cancer, pesticide poisoning and farmer suicides
Activists who desperately cling to lies about the risks of GM crops are now the ones who look 'very stupid.' ...
Science majors less skeptical of GMOs than other undergraduates? Yes, but not by much
For the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to supervise a number of students working on their undergraduate thesis in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Big Ag’ caused the coronavirus pandemic? Predatory science journal amplifies baseless COVID-19 conspiracy
With the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, agricultural supply chains around the world have been taxed to ensure consistent and ...
Global access to education is growing. Here’s how GMO crops might be helping
One of the consistent benefits of GM crop adoption has been a higher farm and household income. In an assessment ...
Plant breeders rapidly adopting gene editing to commercialize more high-yielding crops
It would be inaccurate to say that plant breeders in Canada are ‘a dime a dozen’. A rough estimate places ...
Viewpoint: How GMO herbicide-tolerant canola accelerated sustainable farming
Who would have fathomed how significant a day in March 1995 would become in the history of Canadian agriculture? On ...
GMO herbicide-tolerant canola increased Canadian farm profits $233 million, saved consumers $26 million
Many think that the developers of new technologies are the ones who gain virtually all of the benefits, with consumers ...
Podcast: Agricultural economist Stuart Smyth explains the risks and benefits of GMOs and the future of crop biotechnology
Few academics eagerly engage the public on controversial scientific topics, content to quietly focus on their research. Agricultural economist and ...
Viewpoint: Confused about GMOs and pesticides? Here’s a science-based handbook for combating anti-biotech fallacies
The risk posed by junk science meant to skew our perception of food safety and biotechnology cannot be overstated ...
Viewpoint: Growing GMO crops provides 4 major health benefits you probably didn’t know about
While the application of agricultural chemicals is highly mechanized in industrial countries, the same cannot be said for developing countries, ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s strict GMO crop cultivation rules encourage Amazon deforestation
EU based anti-GMO environmental organizations have ensured that European farmers don’t have access to leading agronomic technologies, resulting in less ...
Viewpoint: ‘Political populism’ dictates Europe’s bureaucratic anti-GMO crop rules
As individuals, we’re able to decide whether a single action is acceptable to us, or deemed to be too risky ...
Viewpoint: ‘Naïve’ calls for glyphosate ban threaten higher food prices, resurgence of more toxic pesticides
The unintended consequences of glyphosate bans are many and potentially severe ...
A look at the neglected ‘1%’ of biotech crops that slashed chemical use and boosted yields
Last year on SAIFood we discussed the benefits of the four major genetically modified (GM) crops, canola, corn, cotton and ...
We must end ‘over-regulation’ of crop gene editing to halt global food insecurity, says prominent Canadian agricultural scientist
[W]hen it comes to food and agriculture, the future may be predictable, but it isn’t humorous. The current situation is ...
Can we feed a growing world population without using yield-boosting technologies?
The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this .... Nature is ruthless and weeds will ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s GMO process-based crop regulations are a great way to kill innovation
In 2002, Europe establishing a new regulatory agency, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to resolve its regulation problems regarding ...
Plant breeding evolution: How manipulating crops helped build civilization
Humans have been breeding plants for millennia. Our ancestors began to domesticate plants (and animals) at least 10,000 years ago, allowing ...
Viewpoint: Japan and South Korea’s bans on Canadian wheat over GMOs is ‘political stunt’ to lower prices
In mid-June 2018, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that a few GM wheat plants had been detected in southern ...
Podcast: Has the GMO debate reached a turning point?
For more than a decade now, environmentalist groups have waged a successful campaign against biotechnology in agriculture. Playing on the ...
How ‘regulatory lag’ in approving GMO crops hurts international trade
Time is money. This time-worn axiom of business school courses and the corporate world is also particularly applicable to the ...
