Iowa State University researchers are moving ahead with a long-delayed project in which a dozen students will be paid to eat genetically modified bananas.

The nation’s largest food companies are under criticism for using too much sugar, too few healthy ingredients and failing to be transparent about what’s in their products. At least some of those concerns now seem to be playing out in a fight over how America’s largest food industry group financed a campaign against a food labeling initiative.

The federal agency already tests for residues of many agricultural chemicals on food. Now it will include the widely used weed killer linked to cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the nation’s chief food safety regulator, plans to start testing certain foods for residues of the world’s most widely used weed killer after the World Health Organization’s cancer experts last year declared the chemical a probable human carcinogen.

The FDA’s move comes amid growing public concern about the safety of the herbicide known as glyphosate, and comes after the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) rebuked the agency for failing to do such assessments and for not disclosing that short-coming to the public.

Alfalfa, the world’s most important forage crop, ranks as a top five crop in terms of economic value and total acreage in the United States. Glyphosate-resistant GE alfalfa was planted on 80,000 ha in 2006 in the US. A study (Item 1) by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that alfalfa has joined oilseed rape as a GE crop that has dispersed beyond cultivated fields.

The study involved Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GR alfalfa. The researchers scouted the roadsides of three important alfalfa-growing areas in California, Idaho and Washington for feral (wild) alfalfa stands. Of 4,580 sites surveyed, feral plants were observed at 404 sites. Twenty-seven percent of these sites had GE plants. The researchers believe that most of these feral populations likely grew from seeds spilled during alfalfa production or transport. They also found clear evidence that the glyphosate resistance gene was being spread by bees, suggesting that “transgenic plants could spread transgenes to neighboring feral plants, and potentially to neighboring non-GE fields”.

The biotech labeling negotiations led by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack broke down over whether GMOs had to be disclosed on food labels or whether it would be enough to ensure that electronic disclosure would be adequate to serve consumers, he says.

According to its Health and Wellness 2015 report, The Hartman Group (see infographic), Bellevue, Wash., food processors should develop simpler ingredients lists for their products, as 59 percent of consumers in its study believe the government should require certain products to be labeled as 'natural.'

The US intelligence chief added gene editing to a list of threats that includes North Korea's nukes and Syria's chemical weapons

The United States' top intelligence official just added gene editing technology to a list of threats that includes North Korea's nukes and Syria's chemical weapons, MIT's Technology Review reported.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday about 2016's US Intelligence Community's Worldwide Threat Assessment.

Genome editing is a technology used to cut and paste DNA inside living cells.

In recent years, a technique known as CRISPR has been widely adopted because it is far easier and more precise than previous methods.

Well, here’s a new development in the genetically modified organisms battle in the islands.

Monsanto Co will pay $80 million to settle civil accounting violations after it allegedly misstated its earnings in connection with its top-selling Roundup product, U.S. securities regulators said on Tuesday.

On Thursday 4 February, more than two dozen people testified at a hearing on House Bill 4122, which would repeal the 2013 legislation prohibiting local governments from regulating crops or seeds.