In what is believed to be a first, a Swedish scientist has attempted to edit DNA in healthy human embryos. [1]
Developmental biologist Fredrik Lanner is the first known researcher to conduct the experiment, which has long been considered taboo due to safety and ethical concerns.
The agritech world got a lot bigger this week when German chemical giant Bayer inked an agreement to acquire Monsanto for $66 billion in cash. The 2 companies had been bickering for months, and this was the 3rd refurbished offer. In the end, Bayer agreed to pay $128 per share, up from the company’s previous offer of $127.50. [1]
The agreement makes it the largest all-cash deal on record.
Markus Manns of Union Investment, one of Bayer’s top 12 investors, said:
A lot of people are willing to spend a few extra bucks to buy organic produce and antibiotic-free meat these days, while others aren’t too worried about eating foods made with genetically modified ingredients or sprayed with pesticides. Well, it seems that scientists recently made history when they served up – and ate – the first full-meal consisting of genetically engineered food using CRISPR technology.
A panel of scientists with India’s Ministry of Environment said in a risk assessment of genetically modified mustard that the crop does not “pose any risk of causing any adverse effects on human and animal health and safety.” [1]
Mustard oil accounts for more than 10% of India’s cooking requirement of approximately 21 million metric tons.
The scientists have spoken, but not everyone is convinced that the information is accurate.
As health officials predicted, the Zika virus is beginning to spread across south Florida, and now a type of genetically modified (GM) mosquito designed to fight the virus has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). [1]
When you think of superfoods, you probably think of pomegranates, pickles, kombucha, turmeric … most of that good stuff. But that if someone suggested to you that milk from a big, disgusting insect most people try to kill was the source of the next big superfood?
If you’ve spent your life stomping on cockroaches (or running from them screaming, like I do), this story might not appeal to you, but here goes nothing.
Soybean fields in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee are plagued by “superweeds” that have become resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in biotech company’s Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide. Farmers are now dousing the plants with illegal chemicals to try and kill the rogue weeds.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said last week that an unapproved variety of wheat was found growing in a Washington state field, though there are no signs that it made its way into commercial grain shipments.
The Monsanto-produced wheat is a RoundUp-resistant variety that was never commercially released. USDA officials said it was discovered in a farmer’s planted field. Department officials are in the process of testing the farmer’s wheat harvest for the GMO variety, but so far none has been found.
The government isn’t particularly interested in making sure Americans know what they’re eating. It seems like knowing what is in the food should be a basic right, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, last week Congress passed a federal requirement for labeling products containing genetically modified ingredients that signifies a big win for food companies.
The same technological advances that brought us the Internet are about to change farming forever, though some say it’s a bittersweet way to make sure the world gets its organic produce on schedule.
The technologies used for the old-paradigm mono-crop are getting more high-tech than ever, but will this affect the slow-food movement, and the desire of consumers to access high quality, non-GM, organic food from their farmer down the lane?
