Daily Food & Ag Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of agricultural and food issues, including the GMO debate, conventional and organic farming, regulations, new breeding technologies and sustainability. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Anti-GMO activists in Pakistan rev up their campaign of dire warnings
Pakistan is weighing whether to commercialize genetically modified maize, and critics of the technology are sounding the alarm, warning of ...
There has been a slew of recent reports of food recalls and foodborne outbreaks. Do we face an escalating problem?
Egg recalls, salmonella-linked jalapeños and a spike in cyclospora cases have dominated headlines this year, but the U.S. food-safety system ...
Viewpoint: America’s food-safety system is being methodically dismantled by the Trump administration.
America's food-safety infrastructure is being quietly hollowed out even as outbreaks grow more complex and harder to trace, journalist Eric ...
Viewpoint: Is corporate embrace of regenerative agriculture greenwashing?
Major food companies are racing to tout “regenerative agriculture,” but the term has no legal definition — and that vagueness ...
Newly approved GMO chestnut trees planted across from the White House are stirring debate
Two genetically engineered American chestnut trees planted near the White House this spring have reignited a decades-old fight over how ...
CRISPR fine-tuning unlocks vitamin C-rich potatoes without yield loss
Potato is a central pillar of global food security, yet its highly heterozygous, tetraploid genome has long frustrated conventional breeding ...
‘Glyphosate is not carcinogenic’: Independent EU chemical oversight agency reaffirms—for the 3rd time in 9 years—that the herbicide is safe-as-used
The European Chemicals Agency's Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) has reaffirmed, for the third time in nine years, that glyphosate does ...
Bayer urges court to approve $7.25 billion Monsanto Roundup settlement that could limit its future liabilities
Bayer is asking a Missouri court to grant final approval to a $7.25 billion settlement covering roughly 65,000 lawsuits claiming ...
The GMO-seed sovereignty debate comes to Nigeria
Across Nigerian farms, market stalls and WhatsApp groups, one word is triggering fear, hope and fury in equal measure: Genetically ...
How climate change could impact food safety
Climate change isn't just fueling stronger storms and longer droughts — it's also making the food on your plate riskier, ...
Rising costs of fertilizer, fuel, and machinery: Tariffs and stalled Iran war weigh heavily on American farmers
American farmers are staring down what one Iowa grower calls "another farm crisis," as President Trump's tariffs and his war ...
Kennedy’s HHS set to define ultra-processed foods—but will the slippery designation make scientific sense?
The federal government is about to attempt what nutrition scientists haven't managed: a workable definition of "ultra-processed food." HHS Secretary ...
The perfect cookie? 3D-printed cookies made from upcycled plastic waste
Scientists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have found a way to turn plastic bottles and crop waste into protein-rich cookies, ...
Viewpoint: No, regenerative agriculture—whatever that means—is no better for the planet or your health than conventional farming that uses pesticides judiciously
Americans have been subjected to a decades-long misinformation campaign about agriculture. Instead of the truth—conventional farmers grow ever-increasing amounts of ...
For millions with peanut allergies, Nurtured Nuts’ CRISPR gene-edited peanuts could ease the fear of accidental exposure
A Minneapolis food-tech startup is commercializing CRISPR-edited strip peanuts tos strip it of the proteins that trigger allergic reactions, aiming ...
‘Glyphosate-free oats’ claim is fearmongering: Every risk agency in the world has assessed it as safe, and it isn’t even sprayed on oat plants
Slap "glyphosate-free" on a bag of oats and watch it fly off the shelf, even though the herbicide is barely ...
Viewpoint: Denying agricultural biotechnology to African farmers won’t fix food insecurity
South Africa's long-running GMO fight isn't really about ideology — it's about whether local farmers can compete on a level ...
CRISPR-edited tomatoes could deliver dramatically higher cold-season yields
Researchers identify a genetic mechanism that coordinates flower development and fruit formation, paving the way toward tomato varieties with more ...
Viewpoint: CRISPR licensing for gene-edited agriculture is booming — just not where you’d expect
Pairwise, the CRISPR gene-editing company built on row crops like corn and soybeans, is now finding its fastest growth elsewhere ...
RFK Jr.’s FDA wants to close a food-safety loophole. Critics say it’s still half-open.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Health and Human Services Department unveiled a plan on August 17, 2026, to close a decades-old ...
How technology transformed India from a health basket case into a breadbasket in three generations—and more than doubled its life expectancy
The average human life expectancy in India has risen to over 68 years, a substantial jump from the baseline of ...
Viewpoint: Bible radio and other social media falsely claim Heinz ketchup contains ‘dangerous GMOs’
A viral image circulating on social media platforms claims that Heinz ketchup has been “forced to now carry a ‘contains ...
Chips, sodas and other ultraprocessed foods made with GMO corn or soybeans will have to carry bioengineered labels
[A federal] court’s ruling tees up a major rewrite of the U.S.’ bioengineered labeling rule, which for the first time ...
What’s in our food? FDA proposes that food manufacturers disclose food additives and ingredients
U.S. health officials on [August 10, 2026] proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before ...
Viewpoint: The misguided Trump-RFK, Jr. formula for improving health: promoting nutrition while undermining food safety
I spent nearly a decade leading FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. That role convinced me that food ...
Viewpoint: Is solar swallowing farmland? Environmental industry advocates challenge Trump administration claims
After the Trump administration accused the state of fast-tracking solar farms on prime farmland, New York leaders fired back last ...
Viewpoint: European farmers struggle in the face of record heat waves
This summer [2026] has seen record-breaking climate induced heatwaves scorch much of Europe, which combined with droughts and “apocalyptic” wildfires ...
