Tom Philpott
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.

Viewpoint: American agriculture could ‘unravel’ without major sustainability changes
Picture an ideal dinner plate. If you’re like most Americans, it features a hearty portion of meat, from animals fattened ...

Viewpoint: Do neonicotinoid insecticides really boost crop yields? New study raises doubts
Ever year, farmers in the United States devote at least 80 million acres, a combined landmass three-quarters the size of ...

Viewpoint: Dicamba pesticide mess already haunting Bayer’s takeover of Monsanto
It’s happening again. In states from Mississippi to Indiana, some US soybean farmers are seeing a troubling sight: Previously healthy plants ...

Viewpoint: Why does US still use neonicotinoid insecticides when they’re banned in Europe?
In late April, the European Union banned a blockbuster trio of neonicotinoid insecticides, marketed by chemical giants Syngenta and Bayer. The decision, motivated by mounting ...

Viewpoint: How Monsanto could end up profiting from dicamba herbicide drift fiasco
By mid-October, state departments of agriculture nationwide had received 2,708 complaints from soybean farmers who claimed their fields had been damaged by ...

Senator Elizabeth Warren sounds off on Monsanto-Bayer merger
Back in September 2016, US agribusiness titan Monsanto and German chemical conglomerate Bayer agreed to a $66 billion merger, making way ...

Viewpoint: Do neonic traces found in world honey pose problems to bees or humans?
The last taste of honey you enjoyed likely came from bees exposed to neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used class ...

Organic industry fears Republicans are targeting National Organic Program
Back in December [2016], the Freedom Caucus [a group of US House Republicans] released a "recommended list of regulations to ...

Agriculture secretary front-runner Ted McKinney seen likely to promote crop biotechnology
Ted McKinney, [former] director of global corporate affairs for Elanco Animal Health, a division of pharma giant Eli Lilly; [former] ...

Incoming Trump Administration faces key food policy challenges
Here are some stories [to track] in the coming year: Mind-bending agribusiness deals. For more than a decade, the global ...

Mark Bittman: Obama ‘did virtually nothing in eight years’ on food policy
...[L]ike nearly every election before it, the current one has been nearly 100 percent free of any debate around the ...

WikiLeaks shows how Big Organic’s Gary Hirshberg ‘bought’ Clinton’s support for GMO labeling
The latest WikiLeaks dump of Democratic Party emails shows that one prominent Big Organic player gets his emails answered by ...

How Monsanto’s ‘big bet’ on dicamba tolerant GMOs may have backfired
. . . . Back in April, [Monsanto] bet big on dicamba, announcing a $975 million expansion of its production facility. . . The chemical ...

Mother Jones’ Tom Philpott visits Monsanto headquarters
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. I normally cover the ...
Tom Philpott: GMOs safe, but pesticide concerns argue for ‘right to know’ labeling
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Over the past few ...

Presidential candidates largely ignoring food, farm policy. What should we ask them?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The 2016 presidential election ...

Whatever happened to golden rice?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. "This Rice Could Save ...
Dow-Dupont merger creates agricultural giant
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. U.S. chemical titans Dow ...
Is Monsanto’s focus on crop biotechnology backfiring?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Pity Monsanto, the genetically ...

Industrial agriculture, not GMO cotton, root of India farmer suicide problem
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Since the mid-1990s, around 300,000 ...

Dangerous chemicals causing sex changes in frogs? Yes, natural ones
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. It's not easy being ...
Could Africa’s own indigenous ‘superfoods’ rival GMOs?
Superfoods exist in Africa thanks not to the genius and beneficence of a foreign company, but rather through millennia of ...

Monsanto slammed for Syngenta takeover proposal
Once an industrial-chemical titan, GMO seed giant Monsanto has rebranded itself as a "sustainable agriculture company." That rhetoric may have ...
Global trade deals could pry open EU market for GM crops
President Obama and his Senate GOP critics are locked in a long-simmering feud, but there's one topic that has them ...

Should Science and Nature run advertorial by wacky Dr. Bronner’s that misleads on GMOs?
David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, presides over a company with famously wacky product labels. ... But apparently, Bronner's ...
Is Monsanto hedging its bet on GMOs?
Is genetically modified seed giant Monsanto doing the unthinkable and moving away from genetically modified seeds? I've called Monsanto's press ...

In response to Grist’s Johnson, Mother Jones’ Tom Philpott argues GMOs lead ag down wrong path
In another response to Grist's Nathanael Johnson's recent series on GMOs, Mother Jones' Tom Philpott presents an anti-GMO view and ...
Why I’m still skeptical of GMOs
Over the weekend, listservs, blogs, and Twitter feeds lit up with reactions to Amy Harmon's New York Times deep dive into the politics ...