The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has approved The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL), Norwich's application to conduct field trials of GM potato crops on a designated trial site at the Norwich Research Park between 2016 and 2020.

A team of scientists led by Phil Simon from the University of Wisconsin–Madison cracked the complete genetic code of carrot, which is published in Nature Genetics. The carrot genome has over 32,000 genes arranged among nine chromosomes, which code for pest and disease resistance, colorful carotenoids, and other traits.

Peace is impossible without food security, and there will be no food security without peace: this was the shared message of a group of Nobel laureates who have joined forces with FAO to tackle the twin problems of hunger and violence through a new alliance launched in Rome today.

A dryland cereals improvement project ‘HOPE Phase 2’ aimed at improving productivity of sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet will be launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the Harmony Hotel on May 11, 2016. The initiative, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The GM food safety testing market, estimated at USD 1.36 billion in 2015, is projected to reach USD 1.99 billion by 2020, according to the report released by Research and Markets. The report is entitled Genetically Modified Food Safety Testing Market by Trait (Stacked, Herbicide Tolerance, Insect Resistance),

Scientists at Uppsala University and their colleagues report that whole genome sequencing of Atlantic and Baltic herring revealed hundreds of loci underlying adaptation to the brackish Baltic Sea or timing of reproduction.

Monash University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that allows plants to regulate their flowering as temperatures rise. The team, led by Monash Associate Professor Sureshkumar Balasubramanian, made the discovery by using a combination of genetic, molecular and computational biology experiments to the flowering plant Arabidopsis.

Dr. Kranthi Mandadi, plant genomics and molecular biologist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco and Dr. Karen-Beth Scholthof, a plant virologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, are specifically working to improve the defenses of grasses that produce biofuel, such as switchgrass, sugarcane and energy cane, as well as those that produce food, including corn and sorghum.

Having made major strides in reducing the prevalence of hunger, many countries in Europe and Central Asia are now looking to improve the quality of people's diets and transform their food systems in order to adapt to climate change, optimize the use of natural resources, and cut waste. The absolute number of hungry people in the region - measured in terms of their caloric energy intake - dropped by at least 40 percent since 1990, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva noted in a policy speech made today at the start of the biennial FAO Regional Conference for Europe.

A group of undergraduate students under their umbrella association Biotechnology Students' Association of Makerere University petitioned members of Parliament to pass the National Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill into law. In their petition, students were concerned that since the bill's first tabling in 2012, there has been slow progress in enacting it into law.