Diets vary greatly from place to place based on food availability, eating habits and culture. Yet, when it comes to food, there is a lot that we know about what is and what is not good for us and this is true no matter where we live. Societal changes, however, are making these choices more complicated. While many countries are still dealing with undernutrition, more and more people around the world are eating energy-dense, high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods.

IRRI is pleased to announce that starting 1 February 2019, Dr. Arvind Kumar will serve as the Director of IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC), located in Varanasi, India. ISARC is IRRI’s regional facility in South Asia that strengthens the national research capacity of rice-growing countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in crop production, seed quality and nutrition, and to enhance farmers’ knowledge and income.
 

Dr. Kevin Folta interviewed Dr. Thomas Zinnen for Talking Biotech Podcast. Dr. Zinnen from the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service shared his thoughts on communication with the public, along with some excellent examples of how to get non-scientists to implement scientific reasoning. Listen to the Podcast in Genetic Literacy Project.

A patent has been issued by the European Patent Office to Calyxt, Inc. which gives them permission to create gene-edited plants by the transient delivery of sequence-specific nucleases, including CRISPR-Cas9.

"Conventionally, gene editing is performed by delivering DNA to cells," says Dr. Dan Voytas, Calyxt's Chief Science Officer and University of Minnesota Professor

A study from Stockholm University reveals that special genes keep plants from withering, staying healthy despite the lack of oxygen when they are underwater for extended periods of time.

Sylvia Lindberg, professor at Stockholm University, looked at how plants become more resistant to oxygen deficiency.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare Expert Committee announced their proposal to allow most of the genome-edited currently under development to be marketed without safety screening by the state. It is expected that the proposal that would accelerate the creation of more nutritious and improved crops.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), have discovered a way to make rice plants replicate through seeds as clones. Though 400 species of wild plants produce viable seeds without fertilization, the same process has not evolved in most commercial crop species. The work led by postdoctoral researcher Imtiyaz Khanday and Venkatesan Sundaresan, professor of plant biology and plant sciences at UC Davis, is a major step forward.

Rwanda women scientists have applauded effective science communication as key to ensuring smallholder farm families appreciate the role of advanced biosciences in addressing food insecurity, malnutrition, and environmental conservation. This came up during a series of stakeholder experience-sharing sessions on contributions of agricultural biotechnology in transforming African agriculture. Lessons learned over 22 years of adoption indicate benefits to farmers, consumers, and the environment with more than 10% of arable land under biotech crops.

A report launched by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the World Bank at COP24 analyses efforts to transform farming with climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in 33 countries to guide future investment and build resilience for the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change. The report is the most comprehensive analysis of CSA to date, listing the top 10 insights into its implementation that scientists have gathered from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America during five years of research.

With the approval of the Government of Afghanistan, the Republic of Korea and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have joined forces to provide emergency assistance to some 5 800 drought-affected vulnerable farming families in two of the worst drought-affected provinces, Ghor and Badghis. Under the terms of this new agreement, rural families in the most drought-affected areas are expected to benefit from the project which will improve their food security through distribution of agriculture inputs such as certified seed and fertilizers and home gardening tools.