Daily Food & Agriculture Digest
Democratic strategists urge Joe Biden to take on Monsanto to win rural support
The Biden campaign wants to undercut President Donald Trump’s sweeping victory across rural America in 2016 by making its case ...
Zinc-fortified crops may fight diabetes, cardiovascular disease in poor countries better than supplements
The double burden of malnutrition is a rapidly growing global health problem. Many populations now face the combination of undernutrition ...
Cuba expects massive crop yield increase with GMO insect-resistant, herbicide-tolerant corn
In the midst of a deep food crisis and a shortage of supplies in the country, the Cuban regime opened ...
GMOs ‘pose no health risks,’ biotech experts say, but ‘bioengineered’ food labels coming anyway
Nearly 70 percent of processed foods at U.S. grocery stores contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient. Even though most scientists believe that genetically ...
Bt cotton in Africa: Role models and lessons learned
Africa’s cotton farmers are struggling to recoup their investments because they lack access to quality seeds that can increase yields ...
CRISPR crop development proceeds rapidly, but ‘bottlenecks’ limit promise
Since its discovery as a bacterial adaptive immune system and its development for genome editing in eukaryotes, the clustered regularly ...
‘Steadily increasing’ GMO acceptance in Europe fuels efforts to revise biotech restrictions
Since 1996 till 2018, the global area cultivated with GM crops has increased 113-fold, making biotech crops one of the ...
Viewpoint: Germany’s pesticide use drops for 8th straight year, but anti-GMO groups say that’s not good enough
German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture data show that use of crop protection products, e.g. pesticides, went down last ...
GMO crops don’t cause infertility, systematic evidence review finds
A systematic review of published literature was conducted to determine genetically modified (GM) plants' potential impacts in infertility indices. Based ...
Florida green lights release of malaria- and Zika-fighting GMO mosquitoes
Florida Keys officials have voted to allow the experimental release of millions of genetically modified mosquitoes into a yet-to-be-decided area ...
EU blocks Austria’s planned glyphosate ban, rejecting claim that weedkiller harms human health
The European Commission has blocked Austria from implementing a planned ban on the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, a document seen by ...
USDA invites public comment on petition to approve GMO chestnut tree
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is inviting public comment on a petition ...
Has ‘Big Tech’ replaced ‘Big Ag’ as America’s favorite corporate villain?
For years, large agricultural companies and farmers have felt the sting of public opinion. Seed and crop protection companies have ...
Video: GMO insect-resistant Bt corn vs conventional corn—which is more vulnerable to pest attacks?
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. A video of my farm on social media has attracted more than ...
CRISPR-edited canola slated for 2021 field trials, moving crop closer to commercialization
Yield10 Bioscience....announced [August 17] that it has obtained a positive response from USDA-APHIS’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS) for its CRISPR ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bird apocalypse’? Study wrongly blames neonicotinoid pesticides for declining bird biodiversity
Though periodic deaths of bees continue to happen, and have been documented for as long as records of bees have ...
Indian scientists call out anti-GMO groups trying to block insect-resistant Bt eggplant safety field trials
Alliance for Agri Innovation (AAI), a special interest group of [the] Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) has urged ...
Federal court upholds dicamba weedkiller ban, opening door to possible Supreme Court challenge
On [August 17], three dicamba registrants lost one of their last remaining legal options to overturn a federal court's mandate ...
Vegan eggs, lab-grown beef jerky and 10 other alternative proteins we could be eating soon
[On August 11], Big Idea Ventures (BIV) announces the launch of its second food technology accelerator program in New York City ...
Viewpoint: Europe can’t produce enough food if it cuts use of farm chemicals but opposes gene editing
Europe is asking its farmers to use fewer pesticides and less fertilizer, while still producing the same amount of food ...
Sustainability report questions Beyond Meat’s environmental benefits, but is it a fair analysis?
Beyond Meat is lacking in environmental impact disclosures when compared to conventional meat giants Hormel and Tyson Foods, according to ...
Video: What are the risks and benefits of animal gene editing?
University of California – Davis’ Alison Van Eenennaam answers questions on genome editing. Van Eenennaam discusses her research on hornless ...
Top-10 myths about GMOs, pesticides and organic farming, according to biotechnology experts
Scientists who have conducted research on GM crops have attested to the safety of such crops and their contributions to ...
Podcast: Bill Nye The Science Guy explains his transition from GMO skeptic to advocate
Back in 2014, Bill Nye The Science Guy was skeptical of genetically modified foods, or GMOs. It raised some eyebrows ...
Following ‘ministerial spat’ over glyphosate, Mexico will phase out weedkiller by end of 2024
Mexico will gradually phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate by the time the current administration ends in late 2024, ...
Scientists should consider public’s values when discussing GMOs, communication experts say
Scientists' inability to effectively engage with the public has partly contributed to public misunderstanding of gene technologies. This is according ...
Viewpoint: GMOs a ‘corporate plot’ to control the food supply, and 9 other biotech myths, debunked
GMO stands for “genetically modified organism.” It most commonly refers to organisms—often plants—that have been modified to achieve desired traits, ...
Regenerative agriculture is a ‘nonsense’ solution to climate change, soil scientist warns
People need to "wake up" and realize regenerative agriculture is "just nonsense", says Dr Doug Edmeades. In fact, the Hamilton-based ...