Genome-edited Camelina sativa plant lines developed by Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. using CRISPR-Cas9 for increased oil content has received nonregulated status from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS)'s Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS). Yield10 submitted an "Am I Regulated?" letter to the BRS in May 2018, requesting confirmation of the regulatory status for Camelina plant lines containing combinations of genetic changes to increase oil production.

Farmers in three US states are harvesting 16,000 acres (~6,475 hectares) of soybeans developed through gene editing technique. The soybeans are expected to be sold to consumers for use in frying oil, salad dressings, and granola bars. It is the first commercialized crop in the US developed using the new promising technique.

Uganda has a hugely untapped but promising potential of biotechnology for her growth, said Hon. Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye, the country's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations. The minister was categorical that bio-economy has greater potential to bring Uganda more money than oil.

FAO and the African Union today launched a new framework document that aims to increase agricultural efficiency and reduce drudgery by helping countries in Africa to develop strategies for sustainable farm mechanization. The Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: A Framework for Africa (SAMA) is the result of discussions with policy makers from AU member states, the AU Commission, FAO and key partners. It offers a detailed look at the history of machinery in Africa, and points the way towards addressing challenges and creating new opportunities to assure the successful adoption of mechanization.

The office was inaugurated by Professor Hamadi Boga, Principal Secretary, Kenyan State Department of Agriculture Research, who was represented by Dr. Margaret Makelo; Mr. Jim Godfrey, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Dr. Matthew Morell, Director General, for the International Rice Research Institute. The office and IRRI’s regional research initiatives will be led by Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail, IRRI’s Regional Representative for Africa.

You might not have heard -- or tasted -- the groundcherry, but this could soon change. The Van Eck Laboratory headed by Joyce Van Eck at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has presented their research on this crop which could make groundcherries a common household name thanks to the genome editing tool CRISPR.

Around 160 participants composed of farmers, members, and officials of selected municipalities in Camarines Sur, and representatives from the academe and non-government organizations were informed on the science of biotechnology, food and environmental safety of genetically modified (GM) crops, biotech products in the pipeline, and the existing biosafety regulatory guidelines in the Philippines during the Biotechnology 101 and Joint Department Circular (JDC) Public Briefing held at Villa Caceres Hotel in Naga City, Camarines Sur on September 26, 2018.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a science and technology think tank, filed a Citizen Petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prohibit the use of non-GMO labels. The group claims that the non-GMO label "deceives consumers through false and misleading claims about foods, food ingredients and their health and safety characteristics."

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered how a sugar-signalling molecule helps control oil production in plant cells. The results, published in The Plant Celljournal could provide new strategies to engineer plants to produce large amounts of oil for biofuels and other oil-based products.

For the first time ever, an international team of scientists from Brazil, the United States, and Germany has created a new crop from a wild plant within a single generation using the modern genome editing process CRISPR-Cas9. The team used Solanum pimpinellifolium as the parent plant species, a wild tomato relative from South America, and the progenitor of modern cultivated tomato. The wild plant's fruits are as small as the size of peas and the yield is low, but are more aromatic and contains more lycopene than modern tomatoes.