Argentina's Ministry of Agriculture has granted approval of Bioceres Crop Solutions' HB4 wheat event for growth and consumption. The HB4 trait increases wheat yields by up to 20% and is currently the only drought tolerance technology for wheat and soybean crops in the world. Argentina is Latin America's largest wheat producer and the world's first country to adopt HB4 drought tolerance technology for wheat.
The European Commission has authorized XtendFlex soybeans (MON 87708 x MON 89788 x A5547-127) for food and feed uses in the European Union (EU). This genetically modified (GM) soybean has gone through a comprehensive authorization procedure, including a favorable scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The authorization is valid for 10 years, and any products produced from this GM soybeans will be subject to the EU's strict labeling and traceability rules.
On October 7, 2020, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and Jennifer A. Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley for the development of a method for genome editing. This method, the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors, is one of gene technology's sharpest tools.
