Nigeria: Learn from our experience with GMO crops

Nigerian leaders are urging other West African nations to adopt genetically modified cowpea given their own success with the crop. They’re also sharing tips on how to avoid the mistakes they made in rolling out GM crops, including cowpea engineered to include a gene from bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which provides inherent protection against the destructive pod borer pest. Prof.…

Read More

Gene-edited rice can naturally fix nitrogen in the soil, vastly reducing the need for chemical fertilizers

The price of artificial fertilizers has skyrocketed, especially in the past year. Improving nitrogen fixation can make farming more sustainable. Renowned botanist Eduardo Blumwald, professor at the University of California, and his team have found a new way to give cereal crops the nitrogen they need to grow. This invention can reduce nitrogen pollution in grain cultivation.…

Read More

Scientists use gene-editing in cereal crops to boost yields without nitrogen fertilizer

Wheat Scientists have developed a gene-editing method that allows cereal crops to benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria Scientists have developed a gene-editing strategy that allows cereal crops to benefit from bacteria that pull nitrogen from thin air. The discovery has the potential to decrease farm input costs and water pollution by making wheat, corn, rice and…

Read More

Gene-edited tomatoes could be a new source of vitamin D

Tomatoes gene-edited to produce vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, could be a simple and sustainable innovation to address a global health problem. Researchers used gene editing to turn off a specific molecule in the plant’s genome which increased provitamin D3 in both the fruit and leaves of tomato plants. It was then converted to vitamin…

Read More

The World’s First Genetically Engineered Wheat Is Here

Argentina’s new genetically engineered, drought-tolerant wheat could have large environmental benefits. In October 2020, Argentina approved the world’s first genetically engineered wheat for cultivation and consumption. Production expanded dramatically in 2021, and will continue to expand in 2022, after Argentina received regulatory approval in late 2021 for exports to Brazil, a major consumer of Argentina’s…

Read More

Opinion: Genetically modified crops are tools of sustainability

It’s safe. It would help farmers deal with drought, support biodiversity, protect the environment and decrease a farms carbon footprint. It would help consumers cope with inflation and pay their food bills. So why aren’t we growing genetically modified wheat? We’re asking this question again because of the news from South America late last year…

Read More