A last-ditch attempt by EU governments to break a deadlock over relaxing regulations on gene-edited crops failed after countries including Poland rejected changes to the text that exempted patented seeds from the measure.
EU governments fail to agree on gene-editing rules despite patent exception
Funding to help make cattle data gathering easier
Partnership between Angus and Holstein association will look at sharing trait information and how to automate data management
New funding for the Canadian Angus Association and Holstein Canada will allow them to improve the data that goes into genetic evaluations and expand into new areas including carcass quality and traits that help limit the environmental impact of beef.
At Ag in Motion: Soybean proponents still eye western expansion
Crop seen as a good add to rotations -- if conditions are right
While canola is king of the Canadian oilseed market, the same can be said of soybeans in the United States. However, the big pulse crop south of the border has made inroads in the western provinces. Manitoba has seen the biggest growth in soybean acres with well over a million planted annually in recent years, […] Read more
Green light for gene editing heralds new age in farming
New guidance from Ottawa puts gene-edited varieties on par with their conventionally bred cousins
Reading Time: 4 minutes In what many believe will be a turning point for agriculture here, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has legalized the growth and marketing of crop varieties developed with gene editing. That has fired up Jason Lenz’s imagination about the technology’s impact on food waste and food security — and also on flea beetles. “Food security […] Read more
Gene-edited crops clear CFIA’s regulatory bar
Agency guidance puts gene editing on level of conventional breeding
Plants gene-edited for efficient use of water or nutrients or to better withstand pests or drought now won’t have to clear the same regulatory hurdles in Canada as any crops that are modified for herbicide tolerance or include foreign genes. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced updated guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection […] Read more
Wild wheat genes can make crop more tolerant to extreme heat
Large trial tested 149 wheat lines and those with exotic DNA had up to 50 per cent higher yields
Reading Time: 2 minutes Researchers have been putting wheat to the test in a Mexican desert to see if varieties with genes from wild relatives are better able to deal with hot conditions. Scientists from the Earlham Institute in Norwich, England, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico collaborated on the study. The latter, known as […] Read more
Too much red tape in gene editing, says expert
That’s stifling advances and fuelling public skepticism, says American professor
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Regulations on gene editing of animals are fuelling negative public perceptions of the technology and stifling innovation in the livestock sector, according to an expert in animal genomics and biotechnology. “I predict there’s going to be a targeted activist campaign against gene editing in food production for a number of reasons,” Alison […] Read more
Canadian researchers crack the case of high-cadmium durum
The recent mapping of durum wheat genome has solved a mystery 30 years in the making — why some varieties are high in cadmium while others are low
Reading Time: 4 minutes Cadmium accumulation in Canadian durum has been a “solved problem” since 2005 — but now genomics have allowed researchers to finally understand why it was a problem in the first place. “It’s a really elegant story about how both breeding and the fundamental science of why cadmium moves in the durum plant actually came together […] Read more
Gene editing produces breakthrough canola variety
Shorter, highly branched canola plants with more pods show the power of the cutting-edge technology
Reading Time: 4 minutes University of Calgary researchers have used gene editing to bring to life a new shorter, highly branched variety of canola that has more pods and is easier to harvest. “Based on my conversations with some people in the agriculture industry — including primary producers — they would love to have a crop like this,” said […] Read more
When it comes to new varieties, there’s a need for speed, says breeder
Creating the equivalent of a 22-hour day can speed up variety development by six times
Reading Time: 4 minutes Combining ‘speed breeding’ with new genomic tools will be able to deliver big dividends for farmers in the coming years, says a plant breeder using the accelerated breeding technique. “It really highlights that we can bring these technologies together to improve genetic gain in the crops of the future,” said Lee Hickey, an associate professor […] Read more
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