The United States would like to cordially invite you to attend the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology's suite of events, to be held from July 26-31, 2023, (TBC), as part of the APEC Third Senior Officials Meeting. The events will build on the intersessional work of HLPDAB's APEC member economies in promoting science-based, risk proportionate regulations for products of agricultural biotechnology. The suite of hybrid events includes:

The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, today met at FAO headquarters in Rome with H.E. Nataša Pirc Musar, President of Slovenia. The Director-General thanked the President for Slovenia’s longstanding partnership with FAO, the long history of friendship and cooperation, and for visiting the FAO Headquarters in Rome to mark the World Bee Day 2023 celebrations. The pair discussed ways to further enhance cooperation on beekeeping and honey value chain development.

Ninety percent (90%) of deaths due to mushroom ingestion are caused by death caps (Amanita phalloides). Drug developers from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, discovered a potential antidote for death cap's toxin using CRISPR technology. Their findings are reported in Nature Communications. Qiaoping Wang and team previously developed a method to find an antidote for the jellyfish venom. They used CRISPR-Cas9 to develop a pool of human cells, each with a mutation in a different gene.

Through a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the University of Hawaii (UH) Manoa will be expanding its CRISPR laboratory course capacity and providing workshops for students at other campuses with significant minority enrollment. The program aims to provide Hawaii's future workforce with knowledge about cutting-edge technologies to enhance the islands' food and agriculture capacity.

In The Netherlands, Bayer Agriculture has filed for a second renewal of the authorization for food (including pollen), feed, import and processing of genetically modified (GM) maize MON810 with the cry1Ab gene, resulting in tolerance to certain lepidopteran pests. MON810 was first authorized for food, feed, import, and processing, and cultivation in Europe in 1998. Market authorizations in Europe remain valid for 10 years, and a request to renew the authorization was submitted in 2007.

Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), the University of Kentucky, and industry partners Acceligen and Recombinetics, Inc. have developed the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), which costs the U.S. cattle sector billions of dollars annually.

The course is a capacity building initiative of ISAAA Inc. and the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC). It was first organized in 2018 as a platform for Asian scientists and regulators to be more competent in the regulations and policies related to biotechnology. Since then, the short course has been offered to promote strong collaboration among key biotechnology stakeholders for science and regulation to co-evolve and bring the benefits of modern biotechnology to society, while reducing its potential risks.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN’s rural development agency, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam last week signed a loan agreement to promote inclusive and sustainable agricultural growth in the Mekong Delta. The Climate-smart Agricultural Value Chain Development (CSAT) project will generate sustainable income opportunities and improved rural livelihoods for 60,000 families engaged in small-scale farming.

The International Year of Millets will provide a great opportunity to promote available technologies on millets and the benefits that come with millets to encourage consumption and utilisation of millets. ICRISAT is taking the opportunity created by the UN declaration by joining partners such as FAO, AGRA, and FARA to demonstrate and showcase its work on millets as a world leader in providing solutions for dryland areas. ICRISAT is a pioneering, international non-profit research for development organisation, specialising in improving dryland farming and agri-food systems.

The visit of Svenja Schulze, the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany, to the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Mali was a significant event that emphasized the importance of strategic collaborations in promoting climate-resilient agriculture technologies and Smart Food crops. During her visit on April 14th, Minister Schulze was impressed by ICRISAT's climate-smart initiatives.