Production of biofuels and biobased products such as plant-derived plastics already support 4.2 million jobs, but the industry's future growth rate depends in part on oil prices and the availability of new government incentives, according to a study commissioned by the Agriculture Department. The study, authored by experts at Duke University and North Carolina State University, also said that the federal government itself has been slow to use the products despite USDA's efforts to promote them. The job estimate includes 1.6 million jobs directly involved in the biobased sector. [node:read-more:link]

Cattle that can crank out human antibodies are being tested as a first line of defense against infectious diseases. SAB Biotherapeutics of South Dakota has genetically engineered cattle to produce large quantities of human antibodies—proteins that help remove harmful foreign pathogens from the body—in a rapid fashion that could be used to treat patients suffering from infectious diseases like Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Ebola, and influenza. [node:read-more:link]

Years later I entered journalism. And I saw breathtaking ignorance and vitriol aimed at scientists like me coming from supposedly educated people. Never in a million years would I have anticipated that our passion for science would be used as a bludgeon or as a scarlet letter.  That is the milieu in which we find the current GMO "debate," which in actuality has devolved into a vicious, relentless assault by organic food activists against the biotechnology community. [node:read-more:link]

Oxitec’s mosquitoes have been deployed in Brazil, Panama, and Malaysia, but Keys residents are thwarting attempts to try them in the U.S. The idea behind Oxitec’s experiment is that if enough genetically modified male A. aegypti mosquitoes are released into the wild, they’ll track down large numbers of females in those hard-to-find places and mate with them. The eggs that result from any union with an Oxitec mosquito will carry a fatal genetic trait engineered into the father—a “kill switch,” geneticists call it. The next generation of A. [node:read-more:link]

Four hundred and fifty billion dollars. That’s the amount of money Chinese officials recently announced they would invest to improve the country’s farms over the next four years. The Agricultural Development Bank of China has created a fund to loan out at least that much money by 2020, according to state media. Experts that I talked to are skeptical — China has announced it would spend big money before and followed through with just a fraction — but even a fraction of $450 billion could be transformative. [node:read-more:link]

After 20 years, the data are in:  Genetic modification boosts crop yields by 21 percent and cuts pesticides by 37 percent.  What have been the effects of this technology? In May a committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine completed a two-year review, “Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects.” The committee, which examined about 900 studies, painted a highly positive picture. [node:read-more:link]

The first major compliance date for preventive rules for human and animal food under the F.D.A. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was Sept. 19. As of that date, larger businesses must comply with new standards; principally, manufacturers must meet preventive control and Current Good Manufacturing Practice (C.G.M.P.) requirements, and animal food companies must meet their specified C.G.M.P.s. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture  announced increased federal and private-sector support to expand and diversify the U.S. agricultural workforce by increasing opportunities in education, research and outreach. The announcement is part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Rural Council initiative, America the Bountiful, a collaboration with federal agencies and private-sector stakeholders to meet the growing demand for a skilled, diverse workforce in the rapidly evolving agricultural landscape. [node:read-more:link]

Duke Energy has agreed to remove millions of tons of coal ash containing toxic heavy metals from a power plant in North Carolina.  The nation's largest electricity company announced Wednesday that it would dig up three huge pits of water-logged ash at the Buck Steam Station near Salisbury. The ash will be dried and either offered for use in making concrete or moved to lined landfills elsewhere. Duke agreed to remove the dumps to settle a federal lawsuit filed two years ago by the Southern Environmental Law Center. [node:read-more:link]

Rural immigrants are more likely to be of working age (18-64), are more racially and ethnically diverse, are less educated and are more likely to have children than the rural population born in the U.S., an analysis of data by researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy found. The researchers found that working rural immigrants are nearly twice as likely as rural U.S. born workers to be poor, and they are poorer and have less education than their urban counterparts. [node:read-more:link]