153 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates Issue Urgent Wake-Up Call Over Hunger Tipping Point

Source: ISAAA Biotech Update – 15 January 2025
A broad coalition of 153 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates has made an unprecedented plea for financial and political backing to develop “moonshot” technologies to avert a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years.  

The signatories warned that the world was not even close to meeting future food needs, with an estimated 700 million people going hungry today and an additional 1.5 billion people to feed by 2050. The letter predicts that humanity faces an “even more food insecure, unstable world than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity.” They added that bold action to change course must be taken, and to also pursue high risk, high reward, scientific research with the goal of transforming the global food systems to meet the nutritional needs of everyone sustainably.

Male mosquitoes to be genetically engineered to poison females with semen in Australian research
Source: The Guardian – 07 January 2025
Toxic male mosquitoes will poison females with their semen in a new population control method developed by Australian researchers. The method involves genetically engineering males to produce spider and sea anemone venom proteins, which they inject into females during mating, reducing their lifespan. Macquarie University researchers have been testing the “toxic male technique” in a species of mosquito that spreads dengue fever, Zika and other viruses, after a study using fruit flies was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.