B4FA Month in Review – December 2019

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B4FA Month in Review – December 2019

January 16th, 2020 / B4FA.org

Sadly, after eight years, B4FA is suspending its activities due to a lack of funding. This will, for the foreseeable future, be our last Month in Review.

Over the years we have run training courses on biosciences for agriculture in Africa in four African countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda – working with African universities and research institutes to introduce the opportunities and benefits of modern advances in crop improvement and breeding to more than 160 journalists.

We have also published three collections of essays on various aspects of bioscience for agriculture in Africa (freely available on www.B4FA.org); run a daily news service, aggregating stories from and about African agriculture on Twitter (#B4FA), our website (http://www.b4fa.org) and through this regular newsletter. All this has been generously funded, at different times, by the John Templeton Foundation; the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust; the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and the N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme of the University of York, a multidisciplinary programme across eight universities in the north of England working to develop sustainable food systems, and a number of individuals.

We hope you have valued what we have done. You all have certainly been generous in your support in terms of communicating how you value our service, whether by passing on our tweets, commenting on the newsletter or visiting our website. Over the years, we have hardly ever received anything but support.

But times change. Despite considerable efforts and continuing enthusiasm to give African bioscience for agriculture and farming a voice and reflect its interests and concerns, we have not been able to raise enough funding to continue into 2020.

However, were funds of the order of GBP 15,000 per annum from a number of sources to become available or were we able to forge a partnership with an (African) organisation to continue and/or widen our activities, we would love to continue.

Can you help or do you know of someone or an organisation that might? Or have you any comments and criticisms about what we are doing, and how we could improve? Please contactProfessor Christopher Leaver, CBE, FRS, FRSE (chris.leaver@plants.ox.ac.uk)or;Bart Ullstein (ullsteinb@gmail.com) as soon as possible.

For now, thank you, may you prosper and goodbye.

DECEMBER HEADLINES
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP25) concluded in December 2019. UN Secretary General António Guterres had outlined the “increased ambition and commitment” that the world needed from governments during COP25, and called for “accountability, responsibility and leadership” to end the global climate crisis, noting “We are in a deep hole and we are still digging. Soon it will be too deep to escape”.

Reuters reported on a new study by researchers from countries including France, the United States and Canada which forecast that if emissions of greenhouse gases continued to rise rapidly, nearly “90 per cent of the world’s population … is projected to be exposed to losses of food production” by 2100. Lauric Thiault, the paper’s co-author, reflected António Guterres’ sentiments saying, “Climate change has put humanity on a dangerous path that will become increasingly difficult to reverse if greenhouse gas emissions are not taken much more seriously”.

The European Scientist summed up the outcome of the two-week long conference as disappointing – although delegates from almost 200 nations made some progress, world leaders failed to agree on more ambitious emissions cuts to meet the 2015 Paris goals. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted: “I am disappointed with the results of #COP25. …The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis. But we must not give up, and I will not give up”.

This month, we would like to congratulate African Development Bank (AfDB) President Dr Akinwumi Adesina on being named the African of the Year by Forbes Magazine for his bold leadership and contribution to increasing investment in Africa, and particularly his trail blazing innovation – the Africa Investment Forum.

This month was also notable for the Philippines becoming the first Asian country to approve the use of Golden Rice in food, feed and processing. This is an important decision – the first food approval for Golden Rice in a country where rice is a staple and Vitamin A deficiency a significant health issue affecting 28 percent of children there between 6 and 12 months. We also feature a piece from Matt Ridley tracing the exhaustive battle fought by the developers of Golden Rice and others over the past almost three decades to tackle preventable deaths, blindness and family misery brought about by Vitamin A deficiency. Ridley describes how “a new variety of Golden Rice, GR2E, has been tested in the field in the Philippines and shown to be robust, true-breeding, high-yielding and strong in its expression of beta carotene. The International Rice Research Institute submitted an application to release it to farmers, in the form of eight hefty documents, one more than 800 pages long and detailing the many tests of the physical, nutritional, allergenic, and toxicity done on the plant to show that it could not conceivably be anything other than safe to grow and eat”. It’s adoption now in the Philippines, following on from approvals as a safe food in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US approved Golden Rice, will bring hope to millions.

HEADLINES
UN Secretary-General outlines the “increased ambition and commitment” that the world needs from governments, calling for “accountability, responsibility and leadership” to end the global climate crisis
UN

Africa: ‘perfect storm’ awaits farming and fisheries if world doesn’t curb emissions
AllAfrica.com

A disappointing end to the COP25 climate conference
European Scientist

AfDB President voted African of The Year
Forbes Magazine, US

Golden Rice
The Filipinos are First! The Philippines is the first Asian country to approve Golden Rice for direct use as food, feed or for processing
Golden Rice

GM crops like Golden Rice will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children
Quillette.com

GENETIC MODIFICATION, REGULATION and GENE EDITING
Confused about GMOs and pesticides? Here’s a science-based handbook for combating anti-biotech fallacies
Genetic Literacy Project, US

Innovative solutions for the regulation of gm crops in times of gene editing
Plant Biology

CRISPR-edited pigs could blunt swine flu epidemic threatening China’s food supply
Genetic Literacy Project, US

GMOs: Grossly Misunderstood Organisms!
The Tribune, Pakistan