Biotech News

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas Wheat Commission has announced that it is putting its support behind a technology being advanced at Kansas State University and that one researcher says will bring “many new discoveries” in improving wheat. The university has been working with wheat gene editing since 2014, and recently published findings of a study…

Cassava’s increasing economic importance but difficulty to improve genetically are what motivated scientist Herve Vanderschuren from Institute of Molecular Plant Biology in Switzerland and colleagues to utilize genome editing to accelerate breeding for modified starch in cassava.  Cassava plays a big role as a staple food and a highly favored commodity in the multibillion starch…

A few months ago, I talked about some questions concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that we hear from our friends and neighbors. Consumers have a lot of fear and animosity toward GMOs, and those who think GM crops are unsafe and harmful fail to understand why farmers would plant such crops. However, a lot of…

At the same time as Swedish agriculture is affected by the worst drought in recent memory, the European Court of Justice has made a decisive decision that will have far-reaching consequences for Swedish agriculture beyond this hot summer. [On July 25th], it was decided that crops in which targeted mutations are created using the genome…

Agricultural Research Service scientists have developed a reliable method to make it easier to breed a variety of crops with vastly improved traits. The technology is expected to speed up the process for developing new varieties of potatoes, rice, citrus and other crops that are better equipped to tolerate heat and drought, produce higher yields…

CROPLIFE Australia has welcomed findings from two international reports released last week, which found the use of genetically modified technology returned several environmental benefits to growers, and resulted in a direct global farm benefit exceeding $18 billion in 2016. The complementary independent reports were published by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications…

This mix of opinions affirm the notion that many perceptions about biotechnology and food are based on misunderstanding and fear. The way we grow and consume food, consumer skepticism around biotechnology remains steady. As I alluded to in Science Over Fiction: GMOS for Public Good, consumer skepticism is largely derived from misconceptions around the science…

GMO corn varieties increased crop yields 5.6 to 24.5 percent relative to their non-GMO equivalents A recent study published by Scientific Reports, and expanded upon in an article by Paul McDivitt for the Genetic Literacy Project, affirms what scientists have often believed: use of GMO technology has increased crop yields. Instead of relying on single…

A ruling that invalidated a GMO ban in Oregon’s Josephine County has been affirmed on appeal. The Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed that a prohibition against genetically engineered crops in Josephine County is pre-empted by state law. Voters in Josephine County approved the ban in 2014, nearly a year after state lawmakers passed a…

The National Biosafety Committee was already on ground to screen and approve seed companies that would actively participate in the seed multiplication when GM seeds are finally commercialized. The Biosafety Bill was signed into law in 2015, putting Nigeria on the map of countries with requisite regulations for effective practice of modern agricultural biotechnology. The…