Biotech News

These are the advances missed by countries that reject GM technology This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. It is posted under Fair Use guidelines. Two new papers aim to quantify the social welfare and economic costs that countries inflict…

If successful, these will be the first gene-edited strawberries to be sold commercially. More than a third of all fresh strawberries that consumers buy end up getting tossed out because they’re bruised, moldy or mushy. Now, two companies have teamed up to solve this problem. The J.R. Simplot Company and Plant Sciences Inc. plan to…

Expert advisory council says liberalising research and cultivation of gene edited crops could create export barriers to the EU. But the risk is worth it, given the EU seems likely to soften its rules too. The UK is gearing up to diverge from the EU and make it easier to research and commercially cultivate genetically…

C I P International Potato Center July 27, 2021 Farmer Bone-Konsira Tumwesigye holds some potatoes in her hands. To get a good harvest, she must spray her field with fungicides on a weekly basis, a labor intensive, time consuming and expensive undertaking. Credit: CIP Successful innovation for agriculture will depend on thorough and careful understanding of the…

Every year, America’s farmers do something incredible: they nurture a small seed or sprout until harvest in order to provide all of us with an affordable supply of food. For sugarbeet growers, a sugarbeet seed is not only the starting point for the production of sugar, but is also an important part of sugar’s sustainability…

Biotech lobby group CropLife is hailing the lifting of a ban on genetically modified (GM) food crops in New South Wales as a “great step forward”, but after 18 years in limbo the state’s agricultural sector has some catching up to do. Around the world, the growth in GM crops is beginning to accelerate. Almost 200 million hectares…

Genetically modified (GM) maize has greatly improved food security in South Africa, reduced environmental damage and helped smallholder farmers achieve significant gains in earnings over the past two decades, a new study finds. This marks South Africa as a success story in the cultivation of insect-resistant Bt white maize, given that it was the first…

A referendum campaign banner in Ollon, Switzerland, against the use phytosanitary products ahead of a vote on banning the use of pesticides in Swiss agriculture. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation. Voters in Switzerland on…

Activist groups which oppose so-called ‘genetically modified organisms’ (GMOs) frequently affirm that they want to fight corporations and capitalism. While I do not discuss whether this legitimate ideological-political attitude is good or bad, right or wrong, I try to show that such avowed anti-industrial struggle in the field of green biotechnologies not only fails to…

Inari, a startup specializing in seed technology, has reached a $1.2 billion valuation after raising $208 million in fresh financing. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s funding round was co-led by Flagship Pioneering, which founded the firm. New investors included G Squared and Pavilion Capital, while participating existing backers include Alexandria Venture Investments, Investment Corp. of Dubai,…