genetically modified crops

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Mark Bittman: FDA Makes Us 'Guinea Pigs' With Frankenfood
 FDA Makes Us 
 'Guinea Pigs' 
 With Frankenfood 
mark bittman
Feb 16, 2011 11:57 AM CST

FDA Makes Us 'Guinea Pigs' With Frankenfood

Mark Bittman: Feds don't think we need labels for genetically engineered food

(Newser) - Had anything to eat today? Congratulations, you're a "guinea pig" in the brave new world of genetically modified food, writes Mark Bittman. What's more, you've got no say in the matter. Lots of our food products already contain GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and more are on the way, but...

Farmers Souring on Genetically-Modified Seeds
 Farmers Sour on 
 Genetically Modified Seeds
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 9, 2010 9:07 AM CDT

Farmers Sour on Genetically Modified Seeds

But 86% of America's farm acres are planted with biotech crops

(Newser) - Genetically-modified crops are pervasive—last year 86% of America's farm acres were planted with biotech crops—but some farmers are beginning to sour on the technology. They say that the advantages are not worth the soaring prices charged by seed giants like Monsanto: The cost of corn seed jumped 32%...

Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report
Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report
investigation
Dec 14, 2009 3:53 PM CST

Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report

Licenses forbid mixing Monsanto genes with competitors'

(Newser) - Monsanto, the country’s dominant seed business, is squeezing competitors with stringent licensing agreements that protect its incredibly dominant position in the industry. Monsanto’s licenses prevent companies from breeding plants that contain both Monsanto’s genes and those of competitors, an AP investigation reveals, effectively locking competitors out of...

Genetically Altered Yeast Ends Wine Hangovers

But remedy doesn't sit well with purists

(Newser) - A Canadian scientist has found a genetically modified hangover cure. He distributes an altered yeast, MLo1—which eliminates compounds that cause headaches in red and many white wines—to 40 winemakers in the US and Canada. But some vintners and winos are resisting the genetic alteration of their craft, which...

Want to Save the Planet? Stop Dumping on Frankenfood

Genetically modified products fight pollution

(Newser) - It's time for greenies to take another look at the frankenfoods they've been campaigning against. Consider the enviropig. It’s a pig with an extra gene that means less phosphorous in manure runoff, and it’s just one example of how genetic modification in agriculture can be good for the...

Science Supersizes Thanksgiving

Our fare is not the same as the pilgrims'

(Newser) - Thanksgiving food has undergone massive genetic changes in the centuries since the Pilgrims first prepared the feast, resulting in turkeys more than twice as big and corn six times as sweet. But human taste buds have evolved, too, meaning we don’t necessarily appreciate our new and improved fare any...

Gene Tweak Could Grow Crops in Toxic Soil

(Newser) - Scientists have made a breakthrough that could dramatically boost the world's food production by making more land farmable, Wired reports. A slight change to a single gene allows plants to thrive in earth made toxic by aluminum, which currently renders nearly half of the world's soil useless for growing crops....

Anti-'Frankenfood' Activists Should Modify Stance

Opposition to genetically souped-up crops has run its course

(Newser) - The recent destruction of a research crop of genetically modified potatoes in England highlights how attitudes towards altered crops have changed, the Economist writes. A decade ago, Greenpeace activists caught in the act of destroying food crops were acquitted because of popular fear of the consequences of “Frankenfoods.”...

Gene Discovery Holds Hope for Drought-Safe Crops

Scientists make botanical breakthrough

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a gene that controls how plants absorb carbon dioxide and release moisture in a breakthrough discovery that could help develop drought-resistant crops, reports the BBC. The gene that regulates the work of stomata, or pores on plant leaves, has been sought by biologists for decades. The gene...

Pharmaceutical Farming Generates Hopes and Fears

Benefits weighed against risk of food-supply contamination

(Newser) - The battle over genetic modification has a new player: "pharming," or pharmaceutical farming, which uses genetically modified plants to mass-produce drug compounds relatively inexpensively. By altering common plants—for instance, tobacco, which can be engineered to produce an HIV drug—researchers say pharming could transform the treatment of...

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