CRISPR Technology Could Democratise Agriculture, Says IDTechEx

Since GM crops were first planted in the USA in 1996, their production has increased dramatically, to the point where more than 90% of all soybean, cotton and corn acreage in the USA is now used to grow genetically engineered crops.

Extremely high barriers to commercialization mean that only companies capable of investing hundreds of millions of dollars have been able to develop transgenic crops. This has created a highly consolidated market, where four players control over 60% of the global industry: Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva Agriscience.

In recent years, the rapid development of gene editing technologies has led to a surge of interest in how they could be applied in agriculture. Gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9 are much cheaper and quicker than transgenic technologies. As well as this, several countries, including the USA, have signalled that they do not intend to regulate gene edited crops. By removing many of the barriers around crop biotechnology, there are hopes (of big AG and the Chemical industry) that gene editing techniques like CRISPR could “democratise” agriculture.

“Crop Biotechnology 2020-2030,” the recent report by IDTechEx explores the tools and techniques used in crop biotechnology, providing a market outlook and evaluating whether gene editing really is the future of agriculture.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/crispr-technology-could-democratise-agriculture-says-idtechex-1029318806

“Democratizing Agriculture”?

How can agriculture be democratized when permaculture, small scale farming, indigenous farming, non GMO Project, certified organic, c.l.e.a.n. or R.A.W., do not even get a seat at the table of this agriculture democracy.

Profit before Health, seems to be big Agriculture and the Chemical Companies perspective for the next decade; disregarding, long term testing, systems perspective on the mammal body, toxicity and killing off the microbiome in our guts and in our soil. This all is disguised, claiming elevated food crop yields, lowering of pesticide use and crop health, ignoring the fact that organic permaculture farming outgrows GM crops. It is suppressing the fact of the existence of Integrated pest management where nature is utilized to fight pests and pathogens through predators, terpenes, phenols, sterols, fugi and changes in environmental factors.

The mode of action Genetically modified organisms follow to kill pest is the same mode of action our gut microbes utilize. A high Genetically modified diet will effectively kill of healthy microbiome and causes overgrowth of unbeneficial bacteria, fungi and yeasts, causing leaky gut, IBS, IBD and potential other long-term health problems, such as autoimmune disease.

In nature in causes pesticide and herbicide rich runoff causing algae blooms through out all big bodies of water in this country, soil toxicity throughout the center of out country rendering the soil useless over time It kills all ecosystems it touches I a radical chain reaction and it jeopardizes our food security itself by killing pollinating insects.

We can only hope that conclusions will prohibit further invasion of GMO’s into our food chain; Sadly I am not hopeful for the broader population.

We can all impact this decicion making by choosing to grow our own food in our back yards, our communities, or purchase organic option from farm to table services.

With all your personal growing option in your garden or community, I am happy to help, create sustainable ecosystems for you!

For sustainable organic integrated landscape, Call 206 495 8081

USDA highlights ‘small agriculture’ initiatives in online exhibit

As the U.S. grappled with the impacts of World War I, World War II and the Great Depression on the food system, USDA supported gardening and small food production initiatives to increase the supply of fresh food for the domestic population. Now, as COVID-19 has prompted a renewed interest in gardening, USDA’s National Agricultural Library is highlighting these initiatives in its digital exhibit, “Small Agriculture.”

“We are in the process of digitizing pretty much all of the print publications that USDA produced across its life span,” Emily Marsh, the designer of the exhibit, told Agri-Pulse. “We have hundreds of thousands of these digitized reports, but they don’t have a lot of meaning in isolation. My idea for the exhibit was to collect these smaller scale initiatives into a container that would give them some context.”

Full article:

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/13879-usda-highlights-small-agriculture-initiatives-in-new-exhibit

How to Grow Change Through Black-Led Agriculture

By Leah Penniman

The roots of Black food injustice run deep. The co-founder of Soul Fire Farm explores that painful history, and how supporting Black-run sustainable agriculture initiatives can further real change.

Leah Penniman is the co-founder, co-director, and farm manager of Soul Fire Farm, the author of Farming While Black, and a 20-year veteran in the struggle to build equitable food systems for Black and brown people. She spoke with Food & Wine’s Adina Steiman—while standing in the farm’s carrot patch—on why Black-owned farms have become so rare, why food deserts are actually food apartheid, and how sustainable farming can deliver social justice.

Read the interview here:

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/leah-penniman-interview-soul-fire-farm-black-agriculture

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/outbreaks-at-60-u-s-food-plants-raise-specter-of-more-shortages?context=search&index=0

More Food Shortages Loom With Outbreaks at 60 U.S Plants

It’s a grim reality that’s playing out across the country as Covid-19 spreads beyond the meat plants that have captured the national spotlight. At least 60 food-processing facilities outside the meatpacking industry have seen outbreaks, with more than 1,000 workers diagnosed with the virus, according to a new study from Environmental Working Group.

These are the first national numbers of their kind. The advocacy group compiled its figures using local media reports because there are no federal agencies reporting the data. The true total is almost certainly higher. Fruit and vegetable packers, bakers and dairy workers are risking infection as the virus spreads through processing plants where employees deemed essential have mostly remained on the job during the pandemic, sometimes laboring in close quarters.

60 Food Processing Plants With 1,193 Reported COVID-19 Cases

Follow the link for the detailed list of companies with covid-19 outbreaks

https://www.ewg.org/covidfoodprocesstable

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-dicamba-lawsuit-idUSKBN20A0JJ

U.S. peach grower awarded $265 million from Bayer, BASF in weedkiller lawsuit

(Reuters) – A Missouri jury’s $265 million award to peach grower Bill Bader in his lawsuit against herbicide providers Bayer and BASF has raised the stakes for the two companies as at least 140 similar cases head to U.S. courts later this year. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Bayer AG is pictured outside a plant of the German pharmaceutical and chemical maker in Wuppertal, Germany August 9, 2019.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, handed Bader, the state’s largest peach farmer, $15 million in actual and $250 million in punitive damages. He sued the companies saying his 1,000-acre orchard was irreparably harmed by herbicide that they produce, which drifted onto its trees from nearby farms.

Bader Farms, in southern Missouri near the Arkansas border, said it lost many trees when the herbicide containing dicamba was used on nearby soybean and cotton farms and drifted onto its property.

The farm said repeated dicamba exposure beginning in 2015 killed or weakened the fruit trees.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed restrictions on the use of dicamba in November 2018 over concerns about potential damage to nearby crops.