Agriculture & Food
We eat to live. Humans use approximately 11% of Earth’s land for the cultivation of crops for food, but also for clothing, medicine and biofuels. Globally, major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize (corn), wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton.
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Viewpoint: November 13 is the long-predicted global doomsday. How a respected scientist got population growth catastrophe predictions so spectacularly wrong—fueling decades of junk science
According to the late Heinz von Foerster, Friday, November 13, 2026, is doomsday. Professor von Foerster and two colleagues at ...
Are Texas data centers killing calves? Debunking viral AI claims
A viral story claiming that every calf born on a Texas ranch has been stillborn since an artificial intelligence data ...
Slow adoption: Only 15 of Africa’s 54 nations embrace genetic engineering food revolution. Here’s why
Genetically modified crops could help Africa feed its fast-growing population, but only 15 of the continent’s 54 nations have taken ...
Viewpoint: After MAHA-Republican election debacle, controversial campaigner Zen Honeycutt looks to sympathetic Democrats to promote her anti-chemical agenda
It was a bad Election Day for MAHA, and Zen Honeycutt wasn’t the least bit surprised. The Make America Healthy ...
Uneasy allies: Are MAHA and American agriculture careening toward a breakup?
The Make America Healthy Again movement and American farmers have been awkward allies from the start, and the relationship may ...
Viewpoint: Democratic tsunami: As the red tide recedes, here are the most likely shifts in food and agricultural policy
Democrats retook both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterms, and the shift could ripple from the farm bill to ...
How climate change is driving increased pesticide usage
Climate change isn’t just stressing crops — it’s giving the insects that eat them a leg up. Warmer temperatures are ...
Farming, food, and chemicals: Post-midterms, the MAHA alliance between Democrats and MAGA Republicans is bruised but not cowed. What comes next?
Concerns about pesticides were a factor in the 2026 midterm elections, but they primarily acted as a winning issue for ...
Viewpoint: From Medicaid cuts to MAHA-backed anti-vaccine and chemical hysteria, voters reject Republicans’ science-skeptical agenda
Republicans who championed Medicaid cuts and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement had a rough Election Day. Democrats seized ...
Farmers are collateral damage in the PFAS “forever chemicals” crossfire. Here’s what they need to know.
Most of the PFAS — or "forever chemicals" — on Minnesota farms came from somewhere else, according to a new ...
Gene editing once viewed with suspicion by UK farmers, upwards of 90% now open to their sustainability benefits
British farmers are ready to give gene-edited crops a shot. Nearly eight in 10 (78%) say they would consider growing ...
Viewpoint: The fragile (and often bizarre) MAHA-MAGA-far left health-and-chemicals coalition is fracturing. Here’s why
The Make America Healthy Again movement rallied voters around fears of industrial chemicals, pesticides and corporate agriculture — but the ...
Challenging genetic modification rejectionists: Our evolving food system has relied on science for thousands of years
Oryza rufipogon is an ordinary-looking wild grass found today in parts of China, India and Southeast Asia. More than 8,000 ...
Viewpoint: Yes, our food system stinks, but the attack of ultra-processed foods is often misplaced
Ultraprocessed foods have a terrible reputation. Studies have linked them with multiple chronic diseases. Journalists and health influencers characterize them ...
We’re likely over-consuming the world’s most profitable nutrient – and it’s wrecking our waistlines.
Protein has become the darling of the grocery aisle, stamped on everything from cereal to snack bars. But as BBC ...
Viewpoint: How to rebuild trust in public health in an age of misinformation, political division, and media fragmentation
In the Facebook group Crunchy Moms: Natural Living & Clean Products, a debate rages over childhood vaccines amid posts about ...
Himalayan and other specialty salts are cool, but they contribute to dangerous iodine deficiency. Here’s how iodized table salt helped raise America’s IQ—and why it still matters for your health
Americans are getting less iodine than they used to, and that could matter for kids’ brains. As Science News’ Aimee ...
Race against food rot: How AI and gene editing could slash fruit and vegetable waste
Every year, between a quarter and half of all the fruits and vegetables grown on Earth never reach a hungry ...
Viewpoint: The organic, good-food, small-farm movement is seductive but wrongheaded. Here’s the sustainability and environmental case for industrial farming
Farmer and writer Wendell Berry, who died Aug. 31 at 92, was a decent, principled man and a lodestar of ...
China’s 5-year plan to accelerate science innovation is putting the U.S. and Europe in the rearview mirror
China is pouring money and political muscle into science, and the gap with the West is closing fast — by ...
Viewpoint: How badly is the U.S. food-safety net fraying? FDA’s bungled handling of the tainted lettuce crisis deepens concerns over cuts to disease tracking and response
This summer, a Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce sickened almost 13,000 people in 21 states, killing two. Investigators traced the ...
A ‘shining success’ or ’empty promises’: Two years along, West Virginians assess MAHA’s food promises
West Virginia’s food-dye ban won applause in Washington, but food pantry organizers in the state’s coalfields say the Make America ...
Viewpoint: That’ll be $300: The wellness industry’s junk science scam to ‘fix’ your immune system that isn’t broken
One of the most frustrating features of the wellness industry, at least for me as an immunologist, is how readily ...
Science challenges anti-soda activists: No, sodas won’t make you fat
A new study helps clarify the weight-loss impact of diet drinks and dispel a popular myth about artificial sweeteners. As ...
Viewpoint: The libertarian case for getting the government out of the business of regulating food choices
Governments worldwide are moving from nudging people toward healthier diets to dictating them, and that's a mistake, as Reason's Jeffrey ...
‘Weird food’? Testicle- and brain-eating, supplement-gulping MAHA health food enthusiasts defend their ‘natural’ diets
Raw buffalo brains, bull testicles and roadkill are on the menu for a growing community of diet contrarians who insist ...
Viewpoint: Activists hype ‘dangerous level’ of pesticide residues in Driscoll berries: Separating health concerns from fear-mongering
I had several people ask me if I have second thoughts about my berry consumption in light of a swarm ...
