Of the new guard of breadmakers the emerging big organic brands like Rudi’s and Ezekiel (sprouted grain breads) stand out, but another fast-growing option customers are falling in love with is Oregon-based Dave’s Killer Bread, which makes everything from whole grain to sprouted breads and even hamburger buns. Read more.
Get Informed on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
FDA Approves GMO Cattle for Food
The FDA has determined that meat from cattle bioengineered to have shorter hair — known as a slick coat — poses a low risk to consumers who eat it. This is the first time the FDA has made a low-risk determination in a bioengineered animal for food use, the department said. Read more.
Purple ‘Superfood’ Tomato Could Finally go on Sale in the US
A purple tomato genetically modified to make it rich in the beneficial pigments found in “superfoods” such as blueberries could soon go on sale in the US. A small company called Norfolk Plant Sciences applied for approval last year and is confident of getting the go-ahead. Read more.
Saving the Banana, the Non-GMO Way
For over 20 years in news story after news story they’ve been telling us that only GM can save the banana – and yet again, such claims turn out not to be true. Edible bananas are sterile, they told us, and they can only be cloned, so if they’re very vulnerable to things like Panama disease you can’t give them resistance except via GM. But at the end of last week under the headline, “This is how scientists are saving the world’s banana crop”, the Telegraph reported that experts at Cambridge University have shown that different banana varieties can be grafted together to build in disease resistance and other traits to keep bananas healthy without any need for genetic modification. Read more.
FDA Sued over Failure to Release Documents on Approval of GM Salmon, planned Ohio Production
On 10 March, Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for unlawfully withholding records regarding FDA’s environmental assessment of genetically engineered (GE) salmon and a planned Ohio-based production facility — a major expansion from current capacity. The FOIA lawsuit comes on the heels of CFS and allies’ successful lawsuit holding FDA’s approval of GE salmon unlawful. FDA’s approval marked the first time any government in the world had approved a GE animal as food. Read more.
‘EPA Must Stop This Experiment’: Billions of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Set for Release
Environmental and public health advocates responded with alarm after the Biden administration on Monday gave a British biotechnology company a green light to unleash billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States. Read more.
Herbicide Resistance Reaching Critical Mass
Weeds have been victorious in so many battles against herbicides, it may be time to say they’re winning the war. Waterhemp and Palmer amaranth lead the way, with both exhibiting resistance to numerous modes of action. But it gets worse. Scientists at the University of Illinois have discovered strains of waterhemp that have developed resistance to chemicals not even applied to crops. Read more.
Washington Attorney General Spends Seven Years, Finally Nails Monsanto, Coca Cola and Others in GMO Money Laundering Scheme
As certain world events have taken center stage over the past few years, the question of genetically engineered foods and whether consumers will ever receive clear, plain text labels has remained in the background for quite some time. Read more.
World’s First Ecosystem Contamination from GM Fish Adds to Canadian Concern
For years, environmental groups in numerous countries have warned about the potential escape of genetically engineered animals into the wild. Now it has happened. Researchers in Brazil have published a paper documenting the escape and successful reproduction of genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) aquarium fish in the wild. The fish, which contains a gene from the jellyfish family to make them fluorescent, has unknown consequences for freshwater systems in Brazil. This is the first documented case of a genetically engineered animal breeding in the wild. Read more.
James Rebanks: There are No Winners in American Farming
We had traveled to the heart of American farming country to stay with an old friend in Kentucky. It was winter and it felt like it might never end. We were made welcome in the white clapboard farmhouse that was full of books. We ate good simple food and talked about our families and our farms. But as hard as we tried to be cheerful, it felt as if we had stumbled into someone else’s grief. There was a sense of impending doom about the coming election results. This had once been a thriving landscape of small-and medium-sized farms. Now, it felt like a landscape littered with ghosts and relics. Read more.
