Biotech News

GMO Answers September 1, 2020   Summer is making way for fall again, and for many people, that means visions of apple picking, hayrides, pumpkin patches, fall festivals, and of course, drinking lots and lots of pumpkin spice lattes! But it’s also a very important time of the year for many farmers: harvest season. While…

The science of gene editing is already at work to make plants perform better. The startup Yield10 Bioscience is carving its own niche in this world, working with two key areas: boosting oil content and raising the seed count for plants. This twofold work allows a plant to make more oil while not giving up…

AHRENSBURG, GERMANY — With approval of Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp.’s HB4 Wheat for growth and production, Argentina becomes the first nation to approve a genetically modified wheat strain. Bioceres said on Oct. 8 that Argentina’s Ministry of Agriculture has granted approval of HB4 Wheat. Argentina is Latin America´s largest wheat producer and the world’s first…

This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. In a welcome sign that the decade-long benign indifference to technology infusion in the farm sector is set to change …. the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has decided to permit bio-safety research…

This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. Chile’s intense political unrest exacerbated by months of COVID-19 quarantine has temporarily overshadowed a relentless environmental, farming crisis: an intense drought—the worst in the country’s history— now moving into its tenth year. The…

Eggplant farmers suffer significant yield losses at 51-73% annually due to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (FSB). To address this problem, many eggplant farmers in major eggplant producing areas in the Philippines and Bangladesh spray chemical insecticides every other day, or up to 80 times per growing season. The practice is unacceptable and unhealthy…

This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. Scientists from Alagappa University in India conducted a study to analyze the performance of insect resistant Bt cotton in rainfed areas. The results are published in Agricultural Economics Research Review 2020. Bt cotton is the only genetically engineered crop approved for…

This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. Gene-editing experts claim that the technology has the potential to make some foods more nutritious without increasing costs and can also reduce food waste. Unlike GMOs, which involve crossing species that would not…

For the last 22 years, biotech crops have been planted and adopted by 70 countries. In 2018, 470,500 Filipino farmers planted 630,000 hectares of biotech corn, attesting to the benefits that biotech crops continue to offer: yield increases, higher income, peace of mind, and improved quality of life. As more Filipino farmers embrace the technology,…

As Europe is getting through this deep discussion, one could say the UK is enjoying one of the post-Brexit “advantages”: speed up decision making adjusted to science. This article is part of our special report Innovation in agriculture: Europe at crossroads. While the EU considers the potential role of new innovative techniques to protect harvests…