Ag Biotech News

Cotton farmers in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) face pest challenges, the most destructive of which is the African bollworm... Reduction in these pest infestations can increase yields and improve welfare of cotton producers, consumers, and innovators.

Currently, the control of bollworms in this region is done through application pesticides, which is a costly exercise in terms of cost of pesticides, spray equipment, and labor. A more effective and less costly way to control damage from bollworms and other insects that frequently damage cotton in the region is by adopting Bt cotton.

Governments in COMESA region are debating whether to approve Bt cotton for commercial production. This decision requires empirical evidence showing the likely magnitude of anticipated gains for producers, consumers, and innovators of the technology.

Using an economic surplus framework, this study shows that there are welfare gains from adopting Bt cotton in the region, and countries that are not adopting Bt cotton are losing. Overall, most gains accrue to Egypt while Kenya gains the least. However, gains per hectare are similar in all countries except Egypt, which gains about four times the other countries... 

The benefits of Bt cotton may be dependent on the stochastic form of other biotic and abiotic constraints, such as secondary pests and droughts due to climate change. For the full benefits to be realized, the respective countries should invest in adoption of climate-change adaptation strategies to mitigate the negative effects of droughts. In addition, innovators should consider stacking Bt cotton technology with drought-tolerant traits to guard against adverse effects of droughts...

I’ve never quite understood the obsession surrounding genetically modified (GM) crops. To environmentalist opponents, GM foods are simply evil... To supporters, GM crops are a key part of the effort to sustainably provide food to meet a global population that is growing by the billions. But more than that, supporters see the knee-jerk GM opposition of many environmentalists as fundamentally anti-science, no different than the deniers on the other side of the political spectrum who question the basics of man-made climate-change.

For both sides, GM foods seem to act as a symbol: you’re pro-agribusiness or anti-science. But science is exactly what we need more of when it comes to GM foods, which is why I was happy to see the venerable journal Nature devote a special series of articles to the GM food controversy. You can download most of them for free here... The upshot: while GM crops haven’t yet realized their initial promise and have been dominated by agribusiness, there is reason to continue to use and develop them to help meet the enormous challenge of sustainably feeding a growing planet.

That doesn’t mean GM crops are perfect, or a one sizes fits all solution to global agriculture woes. Nature points out that most of the benefit of GM technology so far has indeed gone to big agribusiness... Of course, just because something benefits Monsanto doesn’t automatically make it wrong—though clearly not everyone would believe that—and advocates say that GM crops have increased agriculture production by nearly $100 billion and prevented nearly 500 million kg of pesticides from being sprayed since the technology was first commercialized nearly two decades ago...

But hasn’t the use of GM crops increased herbicide-resistant weeds—the so-called “superweeds”? Yes—but it’s not just genetic modification. Before GM crops like Roundup Ready, farmers would often use multiple herbicides to keep weeds in line, which would slow the pace of resistance... Nature points out that weed species are becoming resistant to herbicides that aren’t covered by GM crops, like atrazine... The problems seems to be less the GM crop itself than the way it was deployed—no rotation of crop types and no varying chemicals to head off resistance.

That should really be the lesson of the GM debate. GM foods are a useful tool—and as scientists develop next-generation GM crops, like the long awaited vitamin A-infused Golden Rice, they have the potential to become even more useful. The problems we face in feeding ourselves are very real—out of the 7 billion people on this planet, 1 billion are chronically hungry and an additional 1 billion people are malnourished because their diets lack vital micronutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin A... We need to grow that additional food without using up much more land, because we’re already near the 15% of the Earth’s surface that can sustainably be used for farming.

So anything that can increase farming efficiency—the amount of crops we can produce per acre of land—will be extremely useful. GM crops can and almost certainly will be part of that suite of tools, but so will traditional plant breeding, improved soil and crop management—and perhaps most important of all, better storage and transport infrastructure, especially in the developing world...

I wish a tenth of the energy that’s spent endlessly debating GM crops was focused on those more pressing challenges for global agriculture. There are much bigger battles to fight. 

Rice seized in southern Turkey may have been inadequately analyzed, officials announced May 8. The rectorate of Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) stated that the bio-genetic research center that performed the tests has made some mistakes during the experiment. “The methods of experiment carried out are not suitable to assess if the GMO allegedly found in the rice was not caused by... contamination. Hence, the results are technically invalid” ...  

Turkey’s Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry had dismissed allegations of any GMO food entering the country... “No trace of GMOs was detected in rice in any of our inspections,” the ministry said in a statement. İTÜ’s direction also said that an investigation had been launched into the person who carried out the experiments... 

Food and Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker had said that laboratory results were wrong... “There is no such thing as GMO rice production in the world. There was some contamination... It is not related to the product” ...

Over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of the foodie class and decline of the record industry. Are the two related? When did we start talking about new food trucks instead of new bands? ... That’s because today’s gastronomical adventures provide the thrills that rock-and-roll used to. New restaurants appeal to our sense of discovery. Our diets can reflect our identities, our politics. For fans of thrash metal and/or live octopus sashimi, food is a way to sate cravings for the maximal, visceral and extreme.

And above all, unlike music, food provides a sensual pleasure that can’t be transmitted digitally. We can’t download a banh mi. “Cuisine exists in a cultural realm where people can engage in status displays,” says Kyle Rees, communications manager at the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. “And status items are things that aren’t easily obtained. So if everyone can get music, it loses that value...

According to analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent consumer expenditure survey, the amount of annual income that Americans younger than 25 spent dining out increased nearly 26 percent between 2000 and 2011... As for the record industry, it has spent the 21st century in a protracted sequence of death spasms. In 2000, in the fleeting moments before online file sharing would run rampant, album sales stood at more than 785 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2012, that number had dropped to less than half at 316 million.

Although it remains tricky to directly connect those two arcs, it still feels like cuisine is stealing music’s role in helping young people forge and declare an identity. “Food is not just sustenance anymore,” says California food writer Zach Brooks. “It can offer a point of view. It can be super political in a time when music seems to be getting less and less political. What you eat says a lot about what you believe in, whether it’s sustainable farming or GMOs.” ...

“A lot of what we used to associate with music – it being an indicator of tribalism – I think we’re seeing that more in food these days, instead,” Gold says.”If you’re vegan, or a conscious omnivore, or nose-to-tail person, or a gluten-free person – those people get together and self-identify.” ... “Chefs are the new rock stars.” ... in 2013, the chefs sport tattoos by the armful while the rock musicians wear boat shoes, but the change in uniform signals a deeper shift.

In American culture, “there’s always been that sort of glamorization of the working class,” says Gold. “The rock guys tried to ride that for a really long time... But no matter how glamorous it is, no matter how much you pay for dinner, chefs are still doing things with their hands... In a time when guitar solos are incredibly uncool, somebody has to be doing something that has a physical manifestation to it, right?” In addition to fetishizing that physicality, food also provides a sense of regional pride that the culture-flattening properties of the digital era have practically vaporized in music...

With almost 870 million people estimated to suffer from chronic hunger worldwide, undernourishment represents a major problem that severely affects people in developing countries. In addition to undernourishment, micronutrient deficiency alone can be a cause of serious illness and death.

Large portions of the world population rely on a single, starch-rich crop as their primary energy source and these staple crops are generally not rich sources of micronutrients. As a result, physical and mental health problems related to micronutrient deficiencies are estimated to affect around two billion people worldwide. The situation is expected to get worse in parallel with the expanding world population.

Improving the nutritional quality of staple crops seems to be an effective and straightforward solution to the problem. Conventional breeding has long been employed for this purpose but success has been limited to the existing diversity in the gene pool. However, biotechnology enables addition or improvement of any nutrient, even those that are scarce or totally absent in a crop species. In addition, biotechnology introduces speed to the biofortification process compared to conventional breeding.

Genetic engineering was successfully employed to improve a wide variety of nutritional traits over the last decade. In the present review, progress toward engineering various types of major and minor constituents for the improvement of plant nutritional quality is discussed... 

Although biotechnology has proven successful in improving the nutritional value of a wide variety of crop species, only a few of such crops are approved for human consumption. These crops include soybean lines with altered oil properties (high oleic acid, high omega-3 fatty acid and decreased saturated fatty acids), maize with increased lysine content and rice with reduced allergenicity.

Since the aim of such work is to alleviate nutrient-related health problems, regulatory approval and commercialization defines the usefulness of the biofortification strategy. The case of Golden Rice exemplifies this as it has not yet been approved for commercialization. Thus, in addition to scientific questions, societal questions involved in the biotechnological improvement of nutritional quality must be considered...

To address the global hunger crisis, we profile three agbiotech experts for possible solutions. 

Around the world, more than 870 million people live with hunger. To address this crisis, as well as others that can be solved with better cultivation, more countries are turning to agbiotech. Here, we profile three agbiotech experts: Rofina Yasmin Othman, Adrian Dubock & Clive James 

One severed the red tape between academia and government, another brought philanthropy to industry and one built an international network to track crops worldwide. Moreover, their roots extend from Australia to Malaysia to Switzerland—a true global effort.

Each of these leaders’ stories demonstrates that sowing successful solutions requires networking, teamwork and a fundamental personal drive to employ science in the service of humanity... 

Yield improvements are critical to ensuring food security for a growing world population especially in view of the increasing potential for use of land in biofuel production. Efforts to sustain the impressive rate of past productivity gains, epitomized by such successes as the Green Revolution, are bound to rely on biotechnology innovations such as those responsible for the development of genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Some argue that the use of biotechnology can substantially improve yields relative to the trajectory established by traditional breeding in the 20th century. Because U.S. adoption of GE varieties has been very strong since their introduction in the late 1990s, we investigated empirically whether and to what extent the GE technology has improved realized yields.

We study this question for nonirrigated U.S. maize... and soybean... yields over 1964 through 2010, having controlled for local effects, weather, fertilization, and the preexisting (non-GE) crop improvement trend. For maize we find that GE varieties have increased realized yields, with a stronger gain in the Central Corn Belt (CCB). For soybeans, GE varieties appear to have slightly reduced yields.

For both crops we find a strong trend in yield growth, which may have accelerated in recent years within the CCB. However, the combined effects of yield trend and GE adoption are predicted to fall short of the growth rate envisioned by industry projections.

Given the apparently unbridgeable divide that has developed between the 25 odd countries that grow and trade GM crops and the evolving EU regulatory hurdles, it may be time to consider alternative strategies for realizing a global market for agricultural products. Africa is one area of the world where the battle over GM agriculture is being played out, yet it is the continent where GM could have the greatest positive impact.

Numerous African nations, given their long-standing trade connections to European nations, fear that allowing the commercialization of GM crops could lead to comingling of GM and conventional products and, hence, the loss of export opportunities to the EU. These are legitimate concerns.

One potential solution that warrants serious consideration would be to establish a pool of funds that could be accessed by African agricultural commodity exporters in instances where exports to Europe are rejected. A production levy could be imposed in leading industrial adopting nations (i.e., Australia, Canada and the United States).

The revenue raised would provide an endowment fund that could be used to offset the costs arising from import refusals. African-sourced shipments rejected by the EU will most certainly have alternate markets, but could receive a reduced price or incur higher costs associated with serving alternate markets. The intent of the fund would be to compensate for the real difference between the net returns contracted with European importers and the final market price received...

Although advances in agronomy, breeding, and biotechnology have dramatically increased corn grain yields, soil test values indicate that producers may not be supplying optimal nutrient levels. Moreover, many current nutrient recommendations, developed decades ago using outdated agronomic management practices and lower-yielding, non-transgenic hybrids, may need adjusting.

Researchers with the University of Illinois Crop Physiology Laboratory have been re-evaluating nutrient uptake and partitioning in modern corn hybrids. "Current fertilization practices may not match the uptake capabilities of hybrids that contain transgenic insect protection and that are grown at planting densities that increase by about 400 plants per acre per year," said U of I Ph.D. student Ross Bender. "Nutrient recommendations may not be calibrated to modern, higher-yielding genetics and management." ... 

"Although macro- and micronutrients are both essential for plant growth and development, two major aspects of plant nutrition are important to better determine which nutrients require the greatest attention: the amount of a nutrient needed for production, or total uptake, and the amount of that nutrient that accumulates in the grain."

Study results indicated that high amounts of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), P, and S are needed, with applications made during key growth stages to maximize crop growth. Moreover, adequately accounting for nutrients with high harvest index values the proportion of total nutrient uptake present in corn grain), such as N, P, S, and Zn, which are removed from production fields via the grain, is vital to maintaining long-term soil productivity...

"Although nutrient management is a complex process, a greater understanding of the physiology of nutrient accumulation and utilization is critical to maximize the inherent yield potential of corn," concluded Bender. 

Original study: http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/agronj2012.0352
  

Agricultural biotechnology research and adoption is increasing. It is estimated that by 2015 there will be a three- to four-fold increase in the number of commercialized biotech products. Also increasing are the complications with international trade given the wide range of acceptance and regulatory capabilities currently in practice globally, specifically, the increasing low-level presence (LLP) of biotech products that have received full regulatory approval in one or more countries but not in the country of import.

Canada, recognizing the impact of LLP on international trade, is taking a leadership role. Using a government-industry collaborative model, the Canadian government is developing a domestic regulatory policy to manage LLP from imports and building international collaborations to raise awareness of the impacts of LLP on trade globally. This article details the collaborative government-industry process and the current status of the draft domestic LLP policy and international engagement... 

A proactive approach by Canada to establish a domestic LLP policy could minimize trade disruptions resulting from imports coming into Canada inadvertently containing LLP, which would be beneficial to all sectors of the seed and grain industry. Potentially being the first country to fully develop and employ a LLP policy would also provide an example for other countries to follow on the management of LLP globally.

Establishing a domestic LLP policy prior to or in concert with Canada’s key trading partners will enable Canada to encourage trading partners to establish LLP policies that reflect consistent, science-based factors and which would assist in mitigating future incidences of LLP... 

Once upon a time, according to folklore, a squirrel could travel through America’s chestnut forests from Maine to Florida without ever touching the ground... No longer. Axes and chainsaws must take a share of the blame. But the principal culprit is Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus that causes chestnut blight. In the late 19th century, some infected saplings from Asia brought C. parasitica to North America. By 1950 the chestnut was little more than a memory in most parts of the continent.

American chestnuts may, however, be about to rise again—thanks to genetic engineering. This month three experimental patches will be planted, under the watchful eye of the Department of Agriculture, in Georgia, New York and Virginia. Along with their normal complements of genes, these trees have been fitted with a handful of others that researchers hope will protect them from the fungus.

The project has been organised by the Forest Health Initiative (FHI), a quango set up to look into the idea of using genetic engineering to rescue species of tree whose populations have been devastated by fungal diseases or insect pests. It has sponsored research at several universities, and this month’s trial is the first big field test. If it works, the FHI will ask the government for permission to plant transgenic chestnuts in the wild, with the intention of re-establishing the species in America’s woodlands... 

Until now, the genetic modification of trees has had strictly commercial aims: speeding up the growth and extending the environmental tolerance of species intended for plantations. This use of genetic modification has been opposed by environmentalists, who fear that such “supertrees” may escape and damage wild forests. The Forest Health Initiative’s goal, though, is to heal wild forests, not hurt them. If its experiments do produce a strain of chestnut that could do the job, it will be interesting to see how enthusiastically greens embrace it.

Scientists have developed techniques for the genetic improvement of sunflowers using a non-GMO based approach. The new technology platform can harness the plant’s own genes to improve characteristics of sunflower, develop genetic traits, which will improve its role as an important oilseed crop... 

Among oilseed crops, sunflowers are one of the most important sources of edible vegetable oil for human consumption worldwide. Sunflower and other oilseed crops are the source of the vast majority of vegetable oil used for cooking and food processing. The oils are also for industrial processes such as making soaps, cosmetics, perfumes, paints and biofuels...

Dr Chatterjee’s research uses an approach called TILLING (Targeting Induced Lesions In The Genome), an established non-GM method for creating and discovering new traits in plants...

Over the centuries, the sunflower has been cultivated for traits such as yield. However, along the way many useful genetic variations have been lost. This new technology allows us to pinpoint key genetic information relating to various useful traits in the sunflower, including wild sunflower species. It gives us a method to quickly create variability for further breeding to enhance the quantity, quality and natural performance of the crop. In this era of increasing global food crisis and changing climatic regimes, such ability is highly desirable...

Despite receiving the seal of approval from scientists, genetically modified food continues to be unpalatable in many parts of the world. As Cyrus Martin reports, a combination of factors, including economics and culture, may help to explain the differences... 

Why the difference in the attitude? Keith Lindsey, a plant scientist at Durham University who sits on a panel charged with advising the British government on GMO, points out that the initial reception of GM food in Europe was actually positive, but the relationship quickly soured due to a combination of suspect science and media sensationalism...

“Originally in the UK, in the mid 90s, the first GM product (Flavr Savr tomato) was very popular in the UK and elsewhere — I bought some from the local supermarket, and it sold very well at the time. The turning point was later, with some flawed experiments on GM potatoes, not peer-reviewed but seized on by the popular press, which in turn was seized on by environmentalist campaigners.”

Indeed, this same scenario seems to have played out in the case of the recent Séralini study as the panel of experts appointed by the EFSA have discredited the paper, citing a combination of small sample sizes and inadequate statistics. Unfortunately for proponents of GM food, reporting on the EFSA findings in the popular media has been scant, in contrast to when the story first broke...

The failure of Calgene was followed by a string of successes with GM crops engineered not to improve the quality of the product but to increase yields and lower costs of production. Chief among these developments was the creation of herbicide- and pest-resistant plants... Such crops are planted extensively in the US, and a global survey reveals that they have also been embraced next door in Canada and in certain South American countries. However, as noted above, GM crops are scarcely planted in Europe. [AS: But they are imported at a large scale.] 

If the full history of man’s relationship with food is considered, a reasonable question to ask is whether it is rational for the consumer to put GM food in a different category than traditionally cultivated crops. As is clear in the case of the teosinte to maize transformation, our crops have undergone extensive genetic modification over the millennia, long before modern genetic tools emerged. But there seems to have been a line crossed in the consumer’s mind when it comes to transgenic plants, and the media and environmental groups have certainly helped fan these embers of doubt.

But other scientists close to the GM debate feel that, at least in Europe, there may be other mitigating factors — the economy for instance. Hanspeter Naegeli, a toxicology expert who sits on a GM advisory panel for the EFSA, says, “since the end of WWII, there has been no major economic, financial or political crisis in Western Europe and in these countries we have a very high quality of life with prosperity and a well implemented welfare system. The cost of food declined enormously when compared to the overall costs of living such that people are not dependent on a cheap agricultural production and can afford to buy more expensive products (i.e. organic food).” 

Coupled to a favourable economic climate in which the consumer can afford to turn their nose up at a genetically modified potato, Naegeli senses an anti-big business current running through Europe, explaining, “there is also a negative attitude against large multinational companies. The economies of Western European countries are traditionally built upon small and medium-sized enterprises and larger international companies are considered suspicious.” Ironically, Naegeli thinks that the stranglehold that big business enjoys is also a product of the reforms environmentalists lobbied for, explaining that, “because of the extensive experimental testing required for approval, GM crops are mainly a domain of such large multinationals.” ... 

As with any technology, at some point there has to be a cost/benefit analysis done. While all of the food safety scares surrounding GM food continue to be debunked as fast as they materialize, there are no doubt potential risks that are not yet fully understood, as can be seen in the ecology aspect of the debate. And there is nothing to say that new varieties of GM food could, in principle, potentially be harmful. On the other side of the ledger, however, we have the enormous challenge of feeding the world’s population, which is rapidly growing on a planet with finite resources. Of course, malnourishment has many causes, including local politics and war, but agricultural technology will certainly factor importantly.

And GM food has lived up to its promise of providing increased yields with less pesticide use and at a lower cost to the consumer. Not only this, but genetic engineering has the potential to provide much needed micronutrients (i.e., vitamins) to the malnourished of the world. A case in point is the recent development of an engineered form of rice that produces a precursor of vitamin A, dubbed ‘golden rice’. This remarkable and easily implementable technology has the potential to mitigate hundreds of thousands of cases of blindness in the developing world, and yet it remains shelved due to unsubstantiated health concerns.

Many western consumers can afford to stock their refrigerators with organic produce, but can the rest of the world? Do the potential risks really trump malnourishment and starvation? While the interested parties continue to debate, science marches on. On the horizon are GM crops that can grow in inhospitable corners of the earth, such as the dry and salty environs. And we are now seeing the application of GM technology to animals, such as salmon engineered to reach market weight more quickly through the expression of genes encoding growth hormones. Whether these technologies are taken up or left to gather dust on the shelf will likely depend on the ability of scientists and the government to make a convincing case to the public. If they fail, we potentially handcuff ourselves and will be forced to rely on 20th century technology to solve 21st century problems.

Media reports about substances that are supposedly hazardous to health may cause suggestible people to develop symptoms of a disease even though there is no objective reason for doing so. This is the conclusion of a study of the phenomenon known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Those affected report experiencing certain symptoms on exposure to electromagnetic waves, such as those emitted by cell phones, and these take the form of physical reactions. With the help of magnetic resonance imaging, it has been demonstrated that the regions of the brain responsible for pain processing are active in such cases.

"Despite this, there is a considerable body of evidence that electromagnetic hypersensitivity might actually be the result of a so-called nocebo effect," explained Dr. Michael Witthöft of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). "The mere anticipation of possible injury may actually trigger pain or disorders. This is the opposite of the analgesic effects we know can be associated with exposure to placebos." The new study illustrates how media reports about health risks may trigger or amplify nocebo effects in some people... their symptoms are triggered in exactly the same way if they are exposed to genuine and sham fields... 

The study thus demonstrates that sensationalized media reports on potential risks, which often lack scientific evidence, can have a significant effect on the health of large sections of the population. Such speculation on health hazards most likely has more than just a short-term impact like that of a self-fulfilling prophesy; it is likely that over the long term some people begin to believe that they are sensitive and develop symptoms in certain situations when exposed to electrosmog.

"Science and the media need to work together more closely and make sure that reports of possible health hazards from new technologies are as accurate as possible and are presented to the public using the best available scientific data," said Witthöft, drawing consequences from the study findings.

Matty Demont from Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and other rice researchers published a review on the global value of biotech rice discussing the expected agronomic and consumer benefits of the crop.

Based on their study, biotech rice could deliver the same agronomic benefits as the commercialized biotech crops but the expected consumer benefits could be greater because rice is a staple crop to many nations. They estimated that the annual value of biotech rice could be US$64 billion.

This is only an indicative value because more varieties of biotech rice are expected to be available in the future. This given figure can also aid policy makers on their decision on approval or funding of biotech crops and may also increase consumer awareness about the potential of the crop in their communities.

Read more at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871678413000563

Scientists have developed a physical map of wheat's wild ancestor, Aegilops tauschii, commonly called goatgrass. It's the first huge step toward sequencing the wheat genome -- a complete look at wheat's genetic matter. 

A physical map of a genome shows the physical locations of genes and other DNA sequences of interest. Scientists use them to identify and isolate genes that are responsible for different traits, such as disease resistance and days to maturity... 

"Wheat has the largest genome among crop plants and this is the biggest map as yet assembled for any organism, animal or plant," Gill said.

The work, which began 10 years ago, was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. K-State's portion of the $10 million funding totaled $2 million.

"Many years ago we discovered that a particular wheat ancestor -- Aegilops tauschii, commonly called goatgrass -- is a gold mine for wheat improvement... Wheat varieties grown in the Great Plains are protected from the leaf rust disease by genes extracted from goatgrass and from Hessian fly in the eastern U.S."

The physical map developed by the research team provides a roadmap for the mapping of genes that make wheat resistant to diseases, heat and drought and result in quality bread... "Most resistance genes seem to lie at the ends of chromosomes and can be easily accessed, leading to breeding of more productive and sustainable wheat varieties."

The next step in the process... is to obtain funds to sequence the wheat genome, but... "it's tough, in the tight budgetary situation we are in... Research is expensive and long term and we need to keep at it slowly and surely and not by 'stops and starts'... We need to invest in research."

At stake is a crop worth billions of dollars to the United States and Kansas. The dollar value of U.S. wheat production over the last six years (2007-2012) averaged $14.2 billion per year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. In Kansas, the average dollar value per year over the same period was $2.101 billion.

Original paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1219082110
 

Genetically modified crops generate hype and hatred. A special section of Nature cuts through the drama: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/497021a

DuPont has been honored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the Department of Commerce, for its research efforts to improve nutrition, production and availability of sorghum, a staple crop in Africa. The USPTO Patents for Humanity is an awards competition to recognize patented technologies that address humanitarian needs. 

"This award recognizes the importance of collaboration across the public and private sectors to bring real solutions to the people and places that need it most," said Paul E. Schickler, president, DuPont Pioneer. "Science must be at the heart of solutions to feeding a growing population." 

In Africa, each year up to half a million children become blind from vitamin A deficiencies and nearly 600,000 women die from childbirth-related causes, many from complications that could be reduced through better provision of vitamin A, iron or zinc. Nearly 300 million people in Africa depend on sorghum as a staple crop, but do not have access to another staple that provides the essential nutrients that sorghum lacks... 

DuPont established collaborations with a number of organizations... to increase the amount and stability of pro-vitamin A, iron and zinc, and improve protein digestibility of sorghum. In the next several years, the... initiative is expected to benefit millions of Africans that rely upon sorghum, which traditionally is deficient in key nutrients...  

DuPont donated the original technology and has contributed technical and capacity building support to this humanitarian effort... 

The case for genetically modified (GM) food is getting stronger because of its importance as a tool to feed a growing global population, according to the Government’s new chief scientific adviser. Sir Mark Walport, who is one month into his new job, said today that he will aim to offer ministers the best and most accurate advice on all aspects of science policy, including the introduction of GM crops.

“The issue is European regulation, which is that Europe grows remarkably little genetically modified crops so I don’t think this is something that is going to change overnight... But I think it is inexorably rising up the agenda again because as a technology it is showing its value more and more obviously in terms of the crops that are able to feed the world,” he said.

Public opposition to GM food, and the reluctance of supermarkets to stock it, has hindered the kind of wide-scale farming of genetically engineered crops seen in other parts of the world, notably North and South America. However, Sir Mark questioned whether the majority of the public are as opposed to the technology as some GM critics have argued. He also said GM crops should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“For every genetic modification you have to ask: what plant, what gene and for what purpose? The case will be strong for some and not strong for others. Each case has to be decided on its merits,” Sir Mark said. “If it were possible for instance to develop a blight-resistant potato then that would be a valuable thing to do,” he said referring to a GM potato variety that is resistant to the fungal pest.

“I think the job of a scientific adviser is to set out the scientific case and that scientific case [for GM] it becoming stronger and stronger and stronger. But ultimately I’m very clear that my job is to advise on the science and it is then the politician’s job to decide how to use that. The final decision is a political decision,” Sir Mark said.

A two-year trial of a GM variety of aphid-resistant wheat is underway at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Sir Mark said that it is unfortunate that a large part of the trial’s costs is being spent on security to prevent the field being destroyed by anti-GM campaigners. “The rule of law is absolutely paramount and in a sense you can say that it is a tragedy to spend so much on the rule of law for something like this,” he said...