“Pigs, cattle, and other livestock with edited genes are still far from most dinner plates, but a U.K. company has taken a big step toward the supermarket by engineering several commercial breeds of pigs to be resistant to a virus that devastates the swine industry. The firm, Genus plc, hopes that by year’s end the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will formally approve the pigs for widespread human consumption, a first for a gene-edited animal.”
From Science.
“Kids ages 2 through 19 consumed an average of 11.4% of their daily calories from fast food on a given day between August 2021 and August 2023, according to data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Zoom out: About 30% of youth ages 2 through 19 ate fast food on any given day between August 2021 and 2023. That figure exceeded 36% between 2015 and 2018, CDC found.”
From Axios.
“The Health Ministry has reported a decline in the national stunting rate among children, from 21.5 percent in 2023 to 19.8 percent last year…
Although the 19.8 percent prevalence is 0.3 percentage points lower than the 2024 target set by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), it still represents an estimated 4.48 million newborns and infants affected by stunting, including around 925,000 new cases last year.”
From Asia News Network.
“Global grain supplies are projected to reach a record 3.6 billion tons in the 2025-26 season, marking a third consecutive year of growth—though at a slower pace than the average annual growth of the preceding two decades. Wheat supply has returned to its long-term average growth rate, while maize supply has rebounded after recent setbacks but remains below its historical trend. In contrast, supplies of rice and soybeans are projected to grow at about their long-term growth averages, building on last season’s significantly elevated levels.”
From World Bank.
“The UK government is close to approving rules for precision-bred plants in England. In May, Parliament published draft legislation that will enable a new regulatory system, as set out in the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023.
Precision breeding involves introducing genetic changes into the DNA of plants or animals using techniques such as gene editing. The new regulatory framework aims to introduce gene-edited plants with characteristics such as reduced need for pesticides and fertilizers, lower emissions, and reduced costs for farmers. Because the genetic changes are limited to what may have been obtained through traditional breeding, precision-bred crops pose no greater risk to health or the environment than traditionally bred crops. As such, the new regulatory framework will be distinct from that governing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which involve inserting foreign DNA into the genome.
If the draft is approved by both houses of Parliament, the rules will allow the commercial use of gene editing. It will enable plant scientists and breeders to develop varieties of crops with traits that confer resilience to climate change, disease resistance, or enhanced nutrition. Those crops might include oilseed crops enriched in ω-3 oils, non-browning potatoes to reduce food waste, tomatoes enriched with vitamin D3, and strawberry plants with five times the yield.”
From Nature.
