Produce & Plants
Austrian study (click 'See also') links genetically modified corn strain with diminishing fertility, size of mice. Upwards of 90 percent of U.S. soy, 60 percent of U.S. corn, come from gene-altered seeds, suffuse food system, yet government essentially doesn't regulate GMO food. Cause for hope is Obama's declaration for gene-altered organisms 'abetted by stringent tests for environmental and health effects and by stronger regulatory oversight guided by the best available scientific advice.'
By Tom Philpott
Grist 2008-12-12 (entry)
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Steady, heavy rains increase woes of Florida's $9 billion citrus industry; juice prices go up at the supermarket. Soggy trees vulnerable to spread of citrus canker, which causes premature fruit drop. Another threat is invasive sap-sucking insect, already detected in all 32 citrus-producing counties in Florida, plus Louisiana and Texas.
By Hector Florin
Time magazine 2008-08-28 (entry)
Food firms see obstacles to irradiation of leafy greens, including scarcity of sites, costs and doubts that shoppers will embrace bacteria zapping method. Bagged salad maker calls it 'tease of a technology.' Only a few sites are set up for food, which means processors would pay three ways: shipping costs, shipping time and the procedure itself.
By Julie Schmit
USA Today 2008-08-27 (entry)
To secure future of food, combine genetic engineering with organic farming to grow more with less harm to environment and to farm workers, says plant pathology professor, organic farmer's wife. Pesticides more harmful than genetic engineering, she says. And: Food prices, shortages pressure those who resist genetically engineered crops (click 'See also').
By Pamela Ronald
The Boston Globe 2008-03-16 (entry)
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In challenge to genetic engineering and old customs, Cornell scientist doubles rice harvests by planting early, giving seedlings more room to grow and calling halt to flooding fields. Critics complain that method increases drudgery of farming and yields are exaggerated, yet agree to field trials for determination.
By William J. Broad
The New York Times 2008-06-17 (entry)
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The American chestnut tree once grew from Maine to Florida.
Hybrid disease-resistant chestnut touted as conservationist's dream: easily grown source of food, fuel and rot-resistant building material, says researcher. Chestnut flour predates wheat flour by a thousand years; it can be made into bread or pasta. Mario Batali, chef, says that pigs fed on chestnuts gives pork an intense, woodsy flavor. And: Breeding the blight out (click 'See also').
By Greta Cunningham
Minnesota Public Radio News 2008-06-07 (entry)
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Pests threaten rice in Philippines, China. With food surpluses of last decades, budgets for agricultural improvements were cut drastically as focus shifted to environment. Global network of 14 agriculture/food production research centers lost money for plant-breeding programs, pests and farmer education. For Norman Borlaug's view, click 'See also.'
By Keith Bradsher and Andrew Martin
The New York Times 2008-05-19 (entry)
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Packaged, processed food products likely to contain genetic modifications if they contain soybean oil or corn syrup, experts say. About three-fourths of the corn, and about 90 percent of the soybeans planted in U.S. are genetically modified. In poll, 87 percent of us want biotech ingredients labeled, as in Europe, Japan and Australia.
The Associated Press; CBS4 2008-05-11 (entry)
In race to control 'climate-ready' genetically modified seed market, Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF file about 530 patent applications, says subsistence farmer advocacy group. Its report highlights biotech's moneymaking opportunities in time of food insecurity as well as image risks. Many poor countries in path of worst warming have rejected biotech crops.
By Rick Weiss
The Washington Post 2008-05-13 (entry)
Hawaii to test technology that eventually will trace product to farm of origin and identifies where foods were sent. Government says system will improve food safety and will create a database of all produce shipped and sold. State follows U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart which in 2003 mandated radio tags for all crates and cartons. Critics say that tracking individual items actually tracks individuals and their eating habits.
By Jaymes Song
The Associated Press; Fox News 2008-04-15 (entry)
Pollution is reducing distance that flowers' aroma can reach, research shows. Bees eat flower nectar, and if they have a hard time finding the flowers, they can't sustain their populations. Scent molecules readily bond with pollutants such as ozone, which destroys the aroma. In the 1800s, scents could travel up to 4,000 feet; today, up to 980 feet, scientist says.
LiveScience.com 2008-04-11 (entry)
Irradiation, unlike water or chemical bath, kills bacteria within leaves of spinach and lettuce, researchers find. Critics say irradiation is stopgap measure that ignores bigger problem of how food is grown, processed and sold, and that process changes taste, nutritional value of food and produces toxic chemicals. Irradiated foods, except for spices, must be labeled as such, FDA says.
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay News; The Washington Post 2008-04-10 (entry)
Fatal wheat fungus, Ug99, spreads from Africa to Iran. Three-day wind in 2007 may have carried spores to India and Pakistan as well, where 20 percent of world's wheat is grown and one billion depend on grain for food. In response, Monsanto, Syngenta promote genetically modified wheat seed, said to resist to Ug99, and want ban on GM wheat lifted.
By F. William Engdahl
Asia Times 2008-04-04 (entry)
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While developing diet for life on Mars, researchers see benefits of same sustainable diet for Earth. Rice, azolla (highly nutritious mosquito fern, with drawback of stink) and loach (a fish) grown together would allow air- and water-cleaning, with azolla pulling nitrogen from the air, nurturing rice without need for fertilizer. Other foods are soybeans, sweet potatoes, silkworm pupa and a green-yellow vegetable.
By Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides
Wired 2008-03-07 (entry)
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Noting image problem with genetic modification, agribusiness biotech giants turbocharge conventional plant breeding instead. They use DNA to decipher resistance to pests or drought and to 'mark' desirable genes in fruits and vegetables, and know after 10 weeks from planting whether gene is present. Organic crop breeders embrace this benign biotechnology.
By Scott Kilman
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Wall Street Journal 2006-10-31 (entry)
Some Iowa corn has been contaminated with unapproved genetic modifications since 2006, Dow AgroSciences and EPA report. Though seed sold for 2008 crop has been recalled, harvested grain poses no risk, because the proteins produced by the unapproved Dow variety, called Event 32, are identical to the proteins in approved variety, called Event 22, federal officials say.
By Philip Brasher
The Des Moines Register 2008-02-22 (entry)
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Spanish winemakers, alarmed by warming climate, build a rainwater reservoir, try new varieties, fertilize, monitor by satellite, grow their vines taller and prune them differently, harvest earlier, sometimes even by night and plan a $370 million study. Meanwhile, the grapes are ripening faster, sugar and alcohol content are rising, and the aroma is losing its complexity.
By Jerome Socolovsky
National Public Radio 2008-02-12 (entry)
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Potatoes, lettuce and corn absorbed antibiotics from pig manure used as fertilizer in experiment, a USDA-funded study first reported in 2006. Effects of consuming raw or cooked plants containing antibiotics are largely unknown, but concerns include antibiotic resistance and allergic reactions.
Science Daily 2007-07-13 (entry)
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As organic food sales increase 20 percent a year and some bring up the question of authenticity, scientists study sweet pepper plants to learn how to detect the characteristic markers of synthetic fertilizer. They find that older leaves and fruits are more sensitive to it.
By Laura Crowley
Food Navigator 2008-02-07 (entry)
The Brix scale, long used to define quality of taste and flavor in wines, can be used in fruit and garden vegetables, a group argues. The number, they say, reflects the sucrose as well as the concentration of minerals and proteins, and these factos combine to make taste.
By Dennis Sentilles
Columbia Missourian 2007-12-05 (entry)
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Even as popularity of organics skyrockets, Monsanto wins farmers over, worldwide, with its genetically modified seeds that kill bugs and withstand weed-killing poisons. Nearly all the soybeans and 70% of the corn planted in U.S. are genetically modified and get to our dinner plates via processed foods, animal feed, cornstarch, corn syrup, or cooking oil.
By Brian Hindo
Business Week 2007-12-06 (entry)
As farmers increasingly specialize in one or two crops, aging European gardeners become accidental guardians of biodiversity and flavor. Preservation is crucial because old seeds can be bred into mainstream food crops as climate changes and population grows, but new generation is eschewing agrarian lifestyle, and seeds are being lost.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
The New York Times 2007-11-27 (entry)
Since the '80s, Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA scientist, has been studying food supply and the warming planet. Though the subject is complicated, it's the human factor that makes her optimistic: People are learning how to consume less energy, send less heat-trapping gas into the air and, possibly, how to create a world where people everywhere can get enough to eat.
By Dan Charles
National Public Radio 2007-10-30 (entry)
In 100-year-old crop lands used for research, Illinois scientists found that 50 years of massive nitrogen fertilization reduced corn yields and that level of organic carbon in the soil was greatly diminished, which leads to greater drought vulnerability. Conclusion? Lower doses of fertilizer often are better for crops, soil, water and air.
By Debra Levey Larson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2007-10-29 (entry)
Ozone from burning of fossil fuels stands to damage crops, possibly reducing food production by 10 percent this century, MIT study shows. The study looked at temperature, carbon dioxide, and ozone, all of which are rising, and found that the net effect is especially harmful to heavily fertilized plants.
By Nancy Stauffer
MIT Energy Initiative 2007-10-26 (entry)
Plant scientists have discovered the world's hottest chili pepper in India. With a Scoville heat score nearly double that of the previous record holder, the Bhut Jolokiam pepper could serve as an economical seasoning in packaged foods.
Michael Neff
American Society for Horticultural Science 2007-10-26 (entry)
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In paradigm shift from corn/soy mix that requires water, anti-hunger groups find success in feeding malnourished and starving children with sweet-tasting paste made from peanuts, peanut oil, powdered milk and powdered sugar, and fortified with vitamins and minerals.
By Debra J. Saunders
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-10-25 (entry)
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Despite strong community opposition, European Union OKs imports of genetically modified corn and sugar beet for human and animal food; varieties were developed by subsidiary of DuPont, a unit of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and a German plant breeding company, KWS SAAT and taps into the $6 billion biotech crop market.
Bloomberg News; Reuters; International Herald Tribune 2007-10-24 (entry)
Erythrina gall wasp, an accidental import from Africa, devastates groves of wiliwili trees used as wind shields for crops in Hawaii; desperate officials consider importing a Tanzanian wasp they hope might prey on it, but after mongoose import eschewed pesky rats for native birds, others are wary.
By Tomas Alex Tizon
Los Angeles Times 2007-10-15 (entry)
Praying to the god of corn has its price: nitrogen waste in the waterways, taxpayer money feeding the industry, low-nutrition meat from animals that eat it, but it provides a fertile field of medical research, and in Mexico, growing corn is the only way one farmer ensures his wife's tortillas have the authentic taste.
By Hugh Dellios
Chicago Tribune 2007-09-09 (entry)
Monsanto and Dow agree to stack designer-modified bug-killing, herbicide-resisting genes in corn seed, with eye on maximum yields; with 93 million acres dedicated to crop in U.S., critics worry about unintended deaths of insects beneficial to ecosystem and soil.
By Ana Campoy
Wall Street Journal 0000-00-00 (entry)
Though banned for sale in March, Monsanto's GMO alfalfa seed was already widely planted in Michigan; public interest group sues, citing concerns for human and animal health as well as possible contamination of conventional alfalfa plants through pollination by bees.
By Jeff Kart
The Bay City Times 2007-08-24 (entry)
Seeking the perfect tomato means eschewing perfectly formed orbs in favor of a weedy tangle of vines in which antique, thin-skinned heirloom treasures are hidden; this obsession is an art in the Merrimack Valley, where growers proliferate.
By Kristi Ceccarossi and Darry Madden
The Hippo (NH) 2007-08-23 (entry)
Genetically modified sugar beet seed designed to resist Monsanto herbicide is gaining popularity among growers and processors, including American Crystal Sugar Co.; Wyoming Sugar Co., and Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; farmers must pay $60 premium per acre, and GMO sugar won't carry special label.
Associated Press; CNN 2007-08-22 (entry)
Amber waves of wheat, once vital to Vermont's economy (and even part of the state seal), may return to the state fields, as bakers and locavores seek nearby sources and crops specialist uses USDA grant to grow three heirloom varieties - Surprise, Champlain and Defiance.
By Mel Huff
The Times Argus (VT) 2007-08-13 (entry)
Bane and benefit both, blackberries cover the Oregon landscape with a thorny thicket but are high in antioxidants, show promise in tumor reduction, are a high cash crop, a primary food source for honeybees and other pollinators - and they're tasty as well.
By Joe Mosley
The Register-Guard (OR) 2007-08-11 (entry)
Bumper crop of corn leaves farmers struggling for storage; existing facilities have more business than they can handle, and manufacturers of silos and storage equipment are stepping up production; some farmers may resort to old schoolhouses, airport hangars, caves, or even tarp-covered piles on the ground.
By Shelly Banjo
Wall Street Journal; Pantagraph.com (IL) 2007-08-18 (entry)
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In search of past glory, team of top-level scientists from Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station aim for the return of the tasty tomato, one that is nirvana with salt on a piece of crusty bread, one that isn't necessarily a good keeper.
By Dianna Marder
Philadelphia Inquirer 2007-08-14 (entry)
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For Toronto, Tokyo and other urban sites, Columbia University professor conceives of vertical farming in tall buildings, with each floor hosting hydroponically grown crops, including grains, as well as small livestock such as pigs.
By Eviana Hartman
Washington Post (entry)
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It won't be used directly as food, but in a key concession and after years of restrictions and over environmentalists' objections, EU is poised to allow growth of GMO potato to make paper coating, with remainder going for livestock feed; in U.S., 89% of soybeans and 61% of corn reportedly are modified.
By John W. Miller
Wall Street Journal (entry)
Kamut, a heirloom wheat with a sweet, nutty flavor and high in nutritional qualities, once the darling of the Birkenstock crowd, has captured Italy carbohydrate-wise, and Saskatchewan, as well as Montana and Alberta, are profiting.
By Beppi Crosariol
The Globe and Mail (Canada) (entry)
It's a $70 billion annual bill, and before, only agribusiness cared, but a tsunami of activists now believes that its subsidies for corn and soy encourage diet-related disease and climate change; instead, they advocate money for sustainable and organic food production, agricultural conservation and for a priority on fresh, local fruits and vegetables.
By Carol Ness
San Francisco Chronicle (entry)
Purdue scientist wins World Food Prize, which includes $250,000, for developing six-story, epoxy-coated steel tanks and commercially sterile storage that helps fruits, vegetables maintain nutritional integrity during long transport.
Forbes magazine 2007-06-18 (entry)
