Archive for June 2019

Eggplant, or brinjal (Solanum melongena), is a popularly consumed vegetable grown throughout Asia that is prone to vicious and sustained attack by the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) (Leucinodes orbonalis) throughout the growing season. Yield losses in Bangladesh because of EFSB infestation have been reported as high as 86%. Farmers reduce crop losses by…

The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) of Switzerland has given permission to the University of Zurich to conduct field trials of genetically modified (GM) barley under strict conditions on June 12, 2019. The FOEN approved the application and set out the measures that the university had to take to prevent GM material from spreading…

Council Bluffs, IA., June 11, 2019 U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued the following statement after President Donald J. Trump Signed the Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products Executive Order.  “Our current regulatory framework has impeded innovation instead of facilitating it. With this Executive Order, President Trump is once again putting America…

Australia’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued license DIR 166 to Queensland University of Technology for the limited and controlled release (field trial) of chickpea genetically modified (GM) for drought and other environmental stress tolerance. The field trial is proposed to take place from June 2019 until December 2024 in Walkamin, Tablelands…

Psychologists and biologists from the University of Rochester, the University of Amsterdam, and Cardiff University conducted a study to answer the question “Would consumers eat genetically modified food if they understand the science behind it?” The result of their study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology says that the answer is “yes”. The researchers…