Abstracts, Papers &

Resources:
Farming

We’ve scanned the web to bring together a library of interesting, thought-provoking articles, blogs, reports and academic papers that explore the issue of genetic engineering in food and farming from broader and deeper perspectives. Browse for inspiration or search by theme.

Currently showing only Farming Resources
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FarmingPlant & Animal BreedingScience & Technology

Comparative biology and morphometrics of pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) on Bt cotton and alternate malvaceous hosts

S. Rakhesh, S. G. Hanchinal, M. Bheemanna, A. C. Hosamani, J. M. Nidagundi & S. Deshmukh Sharanabasappa

Publication date: 07/03/2026

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This study compared how pink bollworm develops on Bt cotton and three other host plants (Abutilon indicum, Abutilon hirtum, and Abelmoschous ficulneus). Egg hatching time was similar across all plants. However, larvae, pupae, and adults lived longer and grew larger on Bt cotton, although their development was slower. This is likely because feeding on Bt cotton causes stress, which delays growth but allows the insects to feed for longer and gain more weight. In contrast, development on the other plants was faster but resulted in smaller, less developed insects. The results also show that pink bollworm can complete its life cycle on these alternative plants, which may help it survive between cotton growing seasons. This has important implications for managing this pest in cotton farming.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingScience & Technology

“Taking farmers’ trust issues seriously”: Mistrust and the digital tech revolution in water management

Paloma Yáñez Serrano, Lucía Argüelles Ramos, Louisa Prause

Publication date: 01/03/2026

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This article examines farmers’ scepticism toward digital irrigation technologies in Spain, using qualitative research from Andalusia and Catalunya to explore layered forms of mistrust shaping adoption. Rather than treating mistrust as a barrier, it is reconceptualised as a diagnostic lens revealing concerns around epistemic exclusion, ecological disconnect, institutional opacity, technical failures, and weak relational reciprocity.

Distinguishing between general mistrust (broader concerns about digital agriculture) and particular mistrust (based on direct experience), the authors identify five categories—epistemic, ecological, institutional, practical, and relational. These show that scepticism is rooted in informed critique and historical experience, not ignorance.

The findings challenge techno-optimist narratives and highlight the need for co-development, transparency, and systems responsive to ecological and social complexity. Mistrust is framed not as absence of trust, but as a productive force for more accountable and sustainable agricultural innovation.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingPlant & Animal BreedingScience & Technology

Ensuring effective removal of transgenes before release of genome-edited crops

Jose C. Huguet-Tapia, et al.

Publication date: 14/10/2025

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Genome editing technology is evolving fast, and many labs worldwide are generating crop plants with improved traits. If transgenes were used to generate the edits, foreign DNA must be effectively removed by outcrossing. After an evaluation of various technologies, we show that long-read whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is at present the only reliable approach to confirm the absence of foreign DNA. We suggest using long-read WGS before requesting exemption from classification as genetically modified organisms and provide a guide for interpreting WGS data.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingFood systemsSustainability

The Enduring Fantasy of “Feeding the World”

Adam Calo, Maywa Montenegro, Alastair Iles, and Ben Iuliano

Publication date: 15/07/2025

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This article challenges the dominant idea that global hunger can be solved simply by producing more food. The authors argue that this “feed-the-world” narrative—rooted in colonial and capitalist logics—frames hunger as a problem of insufficient supply rather than inequality and access, while legitimising industrial agriculture and corporate control over land and resources. Despite decades of yield increases, food insecurity and ecological harm persist, revealing the limits of productivist solutions. Instead, the article calls for a shift toward agroecology, food sovereignty, and justice-centred approaches that prioritise local autonomy, ecological health, and the right of all communities to define their own food systems.

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FarmingScience & Technology

Agroecological sustainability: exploring the intersection of digital agriculture, ethics and the right to food

Jorge Freddy Milian Gómez, Koen Byttebier

Publication date: 17/06/2025

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The paper examines the impact of modern agricultural practices on environmental sustainability, focusing on the ethical-legal dilemmas of digital agriculture and its role in the agroecological transition. The paper advocates for an alternative: local and solidarity-based digital agriculture, a model that aligns digital innovation with agroecological practices and human rights principles, empowering small-scale farmers and enhancing food sovereignty. The research concludes that a balanced integration of technology and agroecological practices rooted in human rights is crucial to advancing a sustainable and equitable food system. However, further empirical research is necessary to evaluate the implementation of such local and solidarity-based digital agriculture models across diverse contexts.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingScience & TechnologySustainability

Agroecology and Digitalisation: Traps and Opportunities to Transform the Food System

Francesco Ajena, Nicola Bossard, Chantal Clément, Angelika Hilbeck, Bernadette Oehen, Jim Thomas, Eugenio Tissell

Publication date: 01/06/2025

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This IFOAM report explains why digitalization should not be conceived only as a technological fix to the current input-intensive agriculture model, aimed at alleviating marginally some of its destructive impacts while increasing corporate control and further disempowering farmers. Issues of control and ownership of data are by now well-identified in the public discussion, and digitalization and agroecology sometimes appear in the debate as two dominating and conflicting narratives on what the future of agriculture should be.

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FarmingScience & TechnologySustainability

Robots in agriculture – A case-based discussion of ethical concerns on job loss, responsibility, and data control

Sune Holm, Søren Marcus Pedersen, Tseganesh Wubale Tamirat

Publication date: 01/12/2024

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There is a growing interest in using robots in agriculture due to increasing challenges of labour scarcity and cost. Field robots are expected to help overcome these challenges and to contribute to financial, environmental and social sustainability. However, socially responsible introduction of field crop robots will require awareness and consideration of ethical trade-offs by stakeholders including farmers, regulators, and manufacturers. In this article we discuss the ethical themes of job loss, moral responsibility, and data control in light of the results of sixteen interviews with key stakeholders conducted in 2022 under a European research project named Robs4crops.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingScience & TechnologySustainability

Responsible development of digital livestock technologies for agricultural challenges

Hugh Williamson PhD, Sarah Hartley PhD

Publication date: 28/08/2024

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Digital livestock technologies (DLTs) are presented as solutions to grand challenges in post-Brexit British agricultural policy, such as climate change and food security. Evidence suggests technological solutions to agricultural challenges will be more effective with stakeholder and public engagement, yet there is little known about stakeholder views on these emerging technologies. We drew on responsible research and innovation, to analyse stakeholder perspectives on three case studies of DLT development through anticipatory focus groups with expert stakeholders in British animal agriculture. We found that stakeholders from broadly agroecological approaches to farming are at risk of exclusion from DLT development and policy, with negative implications for the ability of DLTs to resolve grand challenges in animal agriculture.

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FarmingSustainability

Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture

Laura Vang Rasmussen, et al.

Publication date: 04/04/2024

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Agricultural simplification continues to expand at the expense of more diverse forms of agriculture. This simplification, for example, in the form of intensively managed monocultures, poses a risk to keeping the world within safe and just Earth system boundaries. Here, we estimated how agricultural diversification simultaneously affects social and environmental outcomes. Drawing from 24 studies in 11 countries across 2655 farms, we show how five diversification strategies focusing on livestock, crops, soils, noncrop plantings, and water conservation benefit social (e.g., human well-being, yields, and food security) and environmental (e.g., biodiversity, ecosystem services, and reduced environmental externalities) outcomes. We found that applying multiple diversification strategies creates more positive outcomes than individual management strategies alone. To realize these benefits, well-designed policies are needed to incentivize the adoption of multiple diversification strategies in unison.

Resource type: article: Web Page

FarmingScience & Technology

Another step on the transgene-facilitated herbicide treadmill

David A Mortensen, Matthew R Ryan, Richard G Smith

Publication date: 25/03/2024

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Transgenic, dicamba-resistant soybean and cotton were developed to enable farmers to combat weeds that had evolved resistance to the herbicide glyphosate. The dramatic increases in dicamba use these crops facilitated have led to serious problems, including the evolution of dicamba-resistant weeds and widespread damage to susceptible crops and farming communities. Disturbingly, this pattern of dicamba use has unfolded while the total herbicide applied to soybean has nearly doubled since 2006. Without substantive changes to agricultural policy and decision making, the next ‘silver-bullet’ agrotechnology will likely be no more than another step on the transgene-facilitated herbicide treadmill.

Resource type: article: Web Page