“In just the last decade, berries have completed the journey from fragile, local, seasonal treat to worldwide refrigerator staple and marketing juggernaut. Global production has tripled since 2000, according to research from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and still cannot keep up with demand. In sales and volume, berries are the fastest-growing category in American produce, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Most of that growth has been driven by Driscoll’s, a $7 billion California company that began as a multifamily farm in 1904, patented its first strain of strawberries in 1958 and is still controlled by family members. In 1989, its board made what the company calls the Meadowood Declaration, a resolution that seemed preposterous at the time: to make all four berries available, in every season, in every part of the world.”

From New York Times.

“Scientists have found a genetic switch that could shave years off avocado breeding by allowing researchers to identify one of a young tree's most important traits long before it flowers.

Researchers at UC Riverside helped identify the gene that controls whether an avocado tree has an A- or B-type flowering pattern. These flowering patterns determine how neighboring trees exchange pollen, making them an important factor in avocado production…

Avocado growers typically plant a mix of A- and B-type trees because the two flowering patterns complement one another. When one type is releasing pollen during its male phase, the other is more likely to be receiving pollen during its female phase, increasing the chances of successful pollination and fruit production…

Previously, there was no way to determine whether a seedling would become an A- or B-type tree until it matured, a process that can take five to 10 years. The newly identified genetic marker changes that. The gene, known as SDMYB, is a floral transcription factor that controls flowering behavior in avocado trees.”

From Phys.org.

“Original research conducted by Innovate Animal Ag shows that as of June 1, 2026:

• 40% of the EU’s commercial egg layer flock was sexed with in-ovo technology–a 6-point penetration increase from April 1, 2025.
• Since 2021, over 281 million male embryos have been removed before hatching globally.
• In Europe, in-ovo sexing technology has reached a production rate of 100 million female chicks per year, climbing from 500k chicks per month in 2021 to well over 8 million female chicks per month by the publication of this report, a CAGR of over 75%.
• In-ovo sexing is beginning its market-based rollout in the US with over 4% of the country’s commercial layer flock having publicly announced a transition to use the technology as existing flocks are retired.
• In Switzerland, where in-ovo sexing technology kicked off in 2025, in-ovo sexing penetration climbed rapidly and now sits at around 85 to 100% of the country’s layer flock. In Norway, in-ovo sexing has hit a 52% market penetration.
• The global penetration of in-ovo sexing is forecasted to continue its sharp growth in the next few years, led by expansion in the US, continued strength in Europe as a consequence of Italy’s ban on male chick culling, growth in markets where the technology has recently entered such as Australia and Brazil, and potential penetration into greenfield markets like Canada and China.”

From Innovate Animal Ag.

“Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious threat to global food safety. As a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, cadmium can accumulate in agricultural soils through industrialization and urbanization before entering the human food chain. Rice is especially vulnerable because it absorbs more cadmium than other major cereal crops, making it one of the largest dietary sources of cadmium exposure for nearly half the world's population…

Addressing this challenge, a research team led by Dr. Sheng Huang and Jian Feng Ma from the Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Japan, together with Jiayang Li's group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, used precise base-editing technology to identify a beneficial point mutation in the rice metal transporter gene OsNramp5.

Through saturation mutagenesis targeting OsNramp5, the researchers screened hundreds of genome-edited rice lines to identify variants that accumulated less cadmium while maintaining normal manganese uptake and plant performance.”

From Phys.org.