To answer the demand for plant-based products for baking, Nestlé has launched two new plant-based chocolate chips under its Toll House brand. The company launched Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Plant Based Morsels and Nestlé Toll House Dark Chocolate Plant Based Morsels. According to Nestlé, the new Toll House chocolate chips do not contain animal products but they are not certified vegan. The chocolate morsels are available in 9-ounce bags.

The Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in Barcelona, Spain released a statement reiterating the center's position to modify the outdated guidelines as a response to the European Commission's open initiative to modify current regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and adapt new products derived through genome editing.

Solar irrigation holds huge promise for food security, income generation and climate resilience in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. But the rise in solar pumping also carries some risks. If pumps are undersized, they will not be able to provide farmers with enough water. If they are oversized, they risk over-abstraction of groundwater and underuse of what are expensive assets. How can we ensure that solar technology is appropriately matched to local conditions and farmers’ requirements?

Zhejiang University researchers and partners reported a novel mechanism that controls root hair elongation in rice. Their findings are published in Theoretical and Applied Genetics. Root hairs are tube-like structures formed from root epidermal cells. They function as extensions of the roots to maximize contact with the soil for water and nutrient absorption. The researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to knockout OsUGE1 in rice.

The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, launched on Thursday the new FAO report “the status of women in agrifood systems’’ during a high-level event at FAO headquarters. The report provides a comprehensive picture of the status of women working not only in agriculture, but across agrifood systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and conflicts have created significant food security challenges worldwide in the past years. Currently, millions of people around the world need urgent support in over 45 countries. But just providing food aid isn't enough to tackle the growing hunger crisis, explains Rein Paulsen, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Office of Emergencies and Resilience.

Iowa State University (ISU) Seed Science Center (SSC) reported that farmers who plant Bt corn do not encounter the same concerns with insects and mold like those who plant non-Bt corn. They also discovered more benefits of Bt technology in post-harvest corn storage. Bt corn are insect-protected crops developed through biotechnology. Aside from their resistance to field pests like European corn borer and corn rootworm, researchers have proven that Bt corn was resistant in storage to Indianmeal moth.

Tropic, a pioneering agricultural biotechnology company in the United Kingdom using CRISPR gene editing to improve traits in bananas and coffee, has announced that their non-browning gene-edited banana was technically evaluated and determined to be a non-GMO by the Philippines Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry. This banana is the first gene-edited product to go through the Philippines' gene editing regulatory process.

ISAAA through the Philippine Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Program Office's Know The Science: Strengthening Biotech Links project, has released the second issue of Double Helix, the first and only magazine supplement on agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) for senior high school students taking the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) strand in the country.

To construct analyses on potential environmental impacts, resource consumption rates, and unintended trade-offs associated with meat substitutes in the global food system, an inter-European team of scientists detailed the potential variations in the processing level of six types of meat alternative based on factors like greenhouse gasses, land use, non-renewable energy use, and water footprint in their ingredients. Of the six, plant-based meat substitute and cultured meat were found to produce less environmental footprints.