Food & Ag Features
The GLP explores the role of genetic engineering in food production and the polarized debate surrounding it. We highlight the work of our own writers, as well as that of contributors from around the Web. The GLP does not take a position on genetics-related issues; any opinions expressed belong to the authors.
Categories include:
- Chemicals and pesticides
- Organics
- Conventional crops
- New breeding technologies
- Animal biotechnology
- Food systems
- Sustainability
- Regulations
- Politics
- Ideology
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 ...
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 ...
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: 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 ...
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: 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 ...
100% raw milk, 100% misguided: As MAHA-fueled demand for unpasteurized milk soars, American Academy of Pediatrics renews call for a ban on its sale and distribution
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The nation’s largest professional group of pediatricians has renewed its call for a ...
PFAS in Agriculture: Science, Uncertainty, and Risk Communication
Summary PFAS contamination raises legitimate health and environmental concerns, but this diverse family of thousands of chemicals should not be ...
Scaremongering or legitimate safety concerns? The political dogfight over America’s food safety system
The run-up to the midterm elections is turning into a food fight — literally. The summer was marred by a ...
Viewpoint: Food cults: Online ‘nutrition communities’ can pose unique dangers
Nutrition advice used to tell us what to eat. Social media increasingly tells us who we are based on what ...
Viewpoint: Chipotle-inspired lesson: 10,000 sick customers suggest that processed foods can be safer than fresh ones
The Environmental Working Group recently compared ultra-processed foods across major fast-food chains and found one conspicuous exception: Chipotle. That makes ...
From Malaysia to the world: A pioneering science communicator reimagines global science communication for a digital age
By 2024, I was exhausted. For more than a decade, I had carried The Petri Dish through the realities of ...
A meaty problem: How to make cell-grown protein taste like steak, chicken, and seafood
Lab-grown, or cultivated, meat options are already a reality in select restaurants worldwide. For example, the omakase restaurant Robin in ...
Fibermaxxing: Latest Instagram diet craze raises hope that a fiber-rich diet can improve health
This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine. In the world of dietary trends, proteinmaxxing is taking a back seat ...
From smart packaging to bio-based coatings, scientists find new ways to reduce food contamination
In today’s world, food hunger and insecurity are not due to lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough ...
Fact vs misinformation: An official EU guide to GMOs and gene-edited foods
The rules governing new gene editing techniques for plants – called "new genomic techniques" (NGTs) – are being changed at ...
Viewpoint: Follow the money: How Bloomberg Philanthropies and the NGO Lighthouse Reports manufactured a Big Food safety scandal
What happens when you want to run a campaign, but you have very limited data and evidence? One strategy more ...
AI-driven crop innovation gets a boost from the USDA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is taking steps to speed up progress in plant science by calling on universities ...
Viewpoint: Kennedy moves to close Big Food’s GRAS loophole—but will politically-protected Prevagen and Big Supplement slip through another?
With great fanfare, Secretary Kennedy announced the closing of the GRAS (“Generally Recognized As Safe”) loophole. But separating the rhetoric ...
What’s the political and health battle over GRAS–ingredients ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’
Behind every significant advance in US food safety lies a public health disaster that forced Congress to act. A regulatory ...
GMO food scares and organic myths stall Africa’s embrace of agricultural technology and food security
Across Africa, conversations about food are becoming increasingly intertwined with conversations about science as stakeholders across the value chain work ...
Gene editing’s next frontier: Farm animals
Agriculture has always evolved through better tools. From selective breeding and artificial insemination to precision nutrition and modern biosecurity, producers ...
Facts & Fallacies podcast: ‘Regenerative farming’? RFK Jr.’s federal push romanticizes the past and risks food security
An ambitious federal effort is pouring some $700 million into scaling “regenerative” agriculture, framed by Health and Human Services Secretary ...
Viewpoint: Organic food costs more—but is it healthier, safer, and more nutritious? The latest science findings may surprise you.
Few symbols on food labels evoke such an immediate sense of health as the “organic seal.” Its promise of "natural" ...
Trojan fly: Gene-edited living insecticides could help farmers spray less
On June 3, a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas, was found with fly larvae feeding on a wound. While ...
