Authorise and support GMOs, science and innovation, says advocacy group
BRUSSELS: It is time for the EU to authorise GMOs as well as support science & innovation, says the Brussels-based advocacy group, Europabio. The group is urging European decision-makers to play by the rules and endorse the evidence. This is in view of the expected vote on March 27, by EU member states on whether […]
Can technology-enabled urban farms be a winner for S’pore?
SINGAPORE needs to deepen its interests in food production, not just consumption, with strategic partners like Australia. One approach to this is redirecting some of its tech, digital strategies and sharing of IP to scaling up smart food zones based on technology-enabled farming (TEF). Agricultural technology – or agtech – has become a billion-dollar industry. […]
Research on jackfruit diseases gets underway
By Dr Daljit Singh LANCHANG: The problem of browning of jackfruits or rust coloured specs or streaks appearing on the flesh of the fruits has inevitably caused a decline in jackfruit harvest yields in the country. This is because buyers refused to buy diseased fruits, causing the demand for jackfruits to be less favourable. The […]
Genetically engineered crops: Fake news disappointments
Fake news plaguing the progress of genetically engineered (GE) crops is nothing new since their first commercial cultivation 21 years ago. One of the most recent examples of fake news reports was churned out by economist, Jomo Kwame Sundaram and his co-author Tan Zhai Gen, http://ipsnews.net/2017/05/genetically-engineered-disappointments. The article lacks all the criteria of a valid, […]
Non-browning apples set to hit the market
Okanagan Specialty Fruits, the company behind the non-browning Arctic Apple sets to commercial launch with US retailers this fall, following the completion of successful market testing. Arctic Golden apples, whose polyphenol oxidase (PPO) genes have been silenced through genetic modification was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) […]
Philippines tops in Southeast Asia for GM corn production
Media practitioners, farmers, and government agency officers were briefed during a media conference on ISAAA’s latest report, Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2016 at the Acacia Hotel, Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines on May 19. The 2016 report states that Philippine biotech corn adoption increased to 812,000 hectares in 2016, a remarkable 16% increase (110,000 […]
Brazil approves world’s first commercial GM sugarcane
BRAZIL has approved the commercialization of a genetically modified sugarcane, developed by the Brazilian sugarcane breeding and technology company, Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC). This is the first time such permission has been granted any-where in the world. The approval came from the National Technical Biosafety Com-mission (CTNBio). The GM sugarcane contains the gene Bt […]
MICRONES helps overcome loss of crude palm oil during extraction
BY AZMAN ZAKARIA SERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) researchers, along with their research partners, have succeeded in developing Maceration Induced Cell Rupturing Oil Nut Extraction Synthesis (MICRONES), a new technology to help overcome the problem of loss of crude palm oil during extraction process. MICRONES will change the extraction process of crude palm oil (CPO) […]
Authorise and support GMOs, science and innovation, says advocacy group
BRUSSELS: It is time for the EU to authorise GMOs as well as support science & innovation, says the Brussels-based advocacy group, Europabio. The group is urging European decision-makers to play by the rules and endorse the evidence. This is in view of the expected vote on March 27, by EU member states on whether […]
10 SOPs to detect living modified organisms
The Biosafety Department under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is expected to introduce ten standard operating procedures (SOPs) to detect living modified organisms (LMOs) in the country under its enforcement activities in the next four months. Its minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (pix)announced this during the National Biosafety Seminar which aims […]