Reading Time: < 1 minute If you’re a chickpea grower and you didn’t already know it, you’ll be pleased to hear Americans watching the Super Bowl this weekend might not only be chowing down on chicken wings. Thanks to its designation as the National Football League’s (NFL) official dip sponsor, they could also be dipping into Sabra brand hummus, of […] Read more
Green group targets Super Bowl’s official hummus
Scientists create ‘genetic firewall’ for new forms of life
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — A year after creating organisms that use a genetic code different from every other living thing, two teams of scientists have achieved another “synthetic biology” milestone: They created bacteria that cannot survive without a specific manmade chemical, potentially overcoming a major obstacle to wider use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). […] Read more
Germany to press EU for national right to ban GMOs before 2015 harvest
Reading Time: 2 minutes Berlin | Reuters — Germany is pressing the European Commission to allow individual EU countries to ban cultivation of crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) before the 2015 harvest. German farm minister minister Christian Schmidt said “social-economic reasons” should be taken into account to allow a European Union country to ban GMO crops even when […] Read more
EU moves step closer to law on national GMO crop bans
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — EU politicians on Tuesday backed a plan to allow nations to ban genetically modified crops on their soil even if they are given approval to be grown in the European Union, raising the chance their use will remain limited on the continent. Widely grown in the Americas and Asia, GM crops […] Read more
GMO battles over ‘settled’ science spur new study of crops
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, and its brethren of global biotech crop developers are spreading the word that as far as the safety of their genetically modified grain goes, the science is solidly on their side. The message of “settled” science has become the rallying cry for defenders of the crops and […] Read more
USDA clears GMO potato with lower cancer risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes CORRECTED, Nov. 10, 2014 — Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday approved the first genetically modified potato for commercial planting in the United States in more than a decade, a move likely to draw the ire of groups opposed to artificial manipulation of foods. The so-called Innate potato, developed by the […] Read more
Farmers need solutions in the face of bigger, tougher problems
'Wicked problem' is the latest buzzphrase, and agriculture is in the crosshairs
Reading Time: 5 minutes By nature, farmers are problem solvers. Farmers deal with production, mechanical, financial, marketing, and business challenges on a daily basis, and the success of their farm operations depends upon their ability to solve those problems quickly and efficiently. In fact, farmers are so adept at solving their problems, the temptation is to think that every […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
