28 April 2020 – Source: Stock Journal

The state government is confident it will be able to legislate to lift the Genetically Modified food crops moratorium, after reaching an agreement with the opposition.

Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Tim Whetstone said the government has negotiated with the Opposition in good faith about amendments that would enable legislation to pass…Mr Whetstone [is] calling the agreement a win for SA farmers.

“This agreement is a great outcome for South Australian famers who will have the opportunity to reap the benefits of growing GM where that is best for their business,” he said.

Source: Genetic Literacy Project – 09 April 2020

GMO and organic crops can coexist with minimal risk of contamination, multiple studies confirm

In 2020, the world accommodates nearly 7.8 billion people. By 2050, world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion. With the exponentially growing population, decreasing resources, and intensifying climate change, it is compelling to adopt various production systems to attain food security. Thus, coexistence of different production systems has become a viable option for some countries according to ISAAA…

The North American experience in coexistence has shown that even if the greatest share (60%) was devoted to GE crops, the majority (96% of those surveyed) of organic farmers have not incurred economic losses due to the presence of biotech crops.

Source: GMOinfo.eu – 19 June 2019

A special Eurobarometer survey report on food safety was published this month. It shows once again that the regularly promoted narrative that “90 per cent of Europeans are against GMOs” is bogus.

Source: ABC News, Rural – 19 June 2019
Scientists are exploring taking crops out of the field and growing them in warehouses to develop new varieties capable of feeding 10 billion people by 2050.

This research from The University of Queensland was featured in the journal Nature Biotechnology on 17 June 2019.

07 June 2019. Source: Reuters

The US is planning to revise its regulations on importing, transporting and releasing GMOs, it told the World Trade Organization in a filing published on Friday. The proposal from the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the first comprehensive revision of the regulations since they were established in 1987, aims to reduce the regulatory burden to reflect advances in genetic engineering and better understanding of plant pest risks, it said.

05 June 2019. Source: The Leadership Newspaper (Nigeria)

Dr Issoufou Kollo Abdourhamane, the project manager of African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is interviewed on the health and environmental impact of GM crops and the economic importance of Pod-Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea. The PBR Cowpea Project is a public private partnership coordinated by AATF to promote technological interventions that will optimise cowpea productivity and utilization in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

30 May 2019. Source: ISAAA

A healthy agricultural production system cannot exist without healthy soils. Aside from being the habitat of diverse organisms that contribute to carbon sequestration, the soil plays a vital role in food production as well as in climate change mitigation. With biotech products such as herbicide tolerant crops, conservation practices have been used not just to the farmers’ advantage, but also to preserve soil health.

21 May 2019. Source: Healthcare IT

The country’s regulations on gene technology are being updated to clarify the regulatory status of new genome editing techniques and provide additional benefits to cancer patients and the medical research community. The amendments will make it quicker and easier for medical researchers to do early proof of concept work and progress to clinical trials with patients, including work to identify genes involved in diseases. The regulation amendments had been made on behalf of the Legislative and Governance Forum on Gene Technology to make the legal position of genome editing clearer.

14 May 2019. Source: YouTube via Genetic Literacy Project.

Many Americans know the sad tale of how the American chestnut tree was driven almost to extinction in the 20th century. More important, chestnuts were food. An old rule of thumb was that the nuts from a single big chestnut tree could feed a family of four for a year. …The American Chestnut Foundation has been trying to revive the species since 1983 and plant scientists at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science & Forestry, in Syracuse, have used genetic engineering to splice a blight-resistance gene into American chestnut DNA. The result – a highly resistant American chestnut with many fewer “foreign” genes than the Chinese-American hybrids. These plants are intended to be released into forests as wild trees, so of course people want them to be as “natural” as possible. But agricultural chestnuts, meant to be grown in orchards, are another matter.

16 May 2019. Source: Big Ideas, ABC Radio National

Genetic changes can make food crops more resistant to drought, pests and disease but some consumers will go out of their way to avoid genetically modified produce.Despite reassurance from GM scientists, the debate about GM food goes on. Tasmania has a moratorium on GM crops which is up for review in November. A scientist, a lawyer and an environmental advocate debate the pros and cons of GM agriculture.

Source: American Council on Science and Health

In poor parts of the world, people may rely on a single staple crop to meet a substantial proportion of their energy requirements. Many denizens of Africa rely on cassava. The trouble with cassava, however, is that it is nutrient-poor. Partially as a result, iron and zinc deficiencies are common in Africa. Iron deficiency results in anemia, zinc deficiency in susceptibility to death by diarrhea, and each is also associated with impaired cognitive development. Breeding better varieties of cassava that absorb and store more of these nutrients is made difficult by a lack of genetic diversity. So, scientists have turned to biotechnology.

Source: Genetic Literacy Project

Genetically engineered (GE) crops producing insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) (mainly Cry proteins) have become a major control tactic for a number of key lepidopteran and coleopteran pests, mainly in maize, cotton, and soybean.…Over the past 20+ years, extensive experience and insight have been gained through laboratory and field-based studies of the non-target effects of crops producing Cry proteins. Overall, the vast majority of studies demonstrates that the insecticidal proteins deployed today cause no unintended adverse effects to natural enemies.

Source: The Land

Fake news from powerful lobbies is thwarting the urgent access producers need to gene technologies to adapt to drought, flood and the myriad of other challenges climate change is throwing forward. This was the message delivered at a workshop of global economists and researchers dealing with agricultural and food policy, held in Melbourne. Dr Alison Van Eenennaam, from the University of California, said fear mongering around gene technologies was a far larger hindrance to the take-up of critical farming innovation than slow producer adoption.