Archive for June, 2024


CANADA - Gene-edited wheat trials

Barriers continue to fall for GM wheat production

Source: The Western Producer – 31 May 2024

Researchers at Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge have planted their first greenhouse plots of wheat with genes edited to better receive and use sunlight. What has changed? When it comes to genetic modification, wheat appears to be a special case. Still, wheat remained sacrosanct from genetic modification even as researchers around the world, including Canada, completed the mammoth task of mapping its genome in 2018.

What may have changed is public recognition of another threat: climate change.


AUS - GM FOOD CROP YIELD BOOST

Aussie team’s plan to genetically engineer food plants 50 per cent bigger

Source: Yahoo! News – 20 May 2024

As extreme droughts become more common in Australia, grains and vegetables we take for granted will struggle to adapt. But scientists believe they’ve cracked the code and created a process to genetically engineer crops to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so they’ll need less irrigation and fertiliser. By modifying the plants, modelling suggests they will become bigger — anything from 2 per cent to a whopping 50 per cent in biomass. And this could also result in higher yields, more money for farmers, and lower prices at the supermarket. Dr Ben Long from the University of Newcastle has been working with colleagues from Australian National University on the concept for 15 years.


AUS - GM wheat trials

Australian trial of gene-edited wheat aims for 10% bigger yields

Source: Reuters – 23 May 2024

The groundwork for a major trial of gene-edited wheat has begun in Australia, where a state company is growing hundreds of varieties it says could be up to 10% more productive and make farming more sustainable. Gene-editing is an emerging technique its advocates say could create more nutritious, hardier crops with higher yields and less need for water, fertiliser and chemicals.

Australian seed breeder InterGrain earlier this year imported several thousand wheat seeds created by U.S. agritech company Inari. These seeds are now growing in a testing greenhouse in southeast Queensland. Seeds from those plants will be used to grow more plants, producing enough seeds to plant at more than 45 trial sites across the country in the 2025 growing season.