This is an especially exciting time as scientists are seeing their research applied in the field, leading to food that is healthier, better quality and more sustainably produced.

High-oleic soybean oil is the first gene-edited food product available on the market. This heart-healthy oil has zero trans fats, longer shelf life and performs well in baking and frying.

“We wanted to use gene editing to create a soybean variety that was higher in monounsaturated fats and compete effectively with oils like sunflower, canola or olive oil,” said Dr. Dan Voytas, a professor at the University of Minnesota, who helped develop the gene-edited high-oleic soybean.

The innovation was possible because gene editing allows for very precise changes in the plant’s genome, Dr. Voytas said.

Dr. Steve Whitham is working to improve soybeans, an important crop that is used in food, oil and animal feed. One goal of his research is to make farming more sustainable by helping farmers grow more using fewer inputs and natural resources.

“It’s estimated that we lose 15 to 20 percent of the soybean crop to diseases each year,” said Dr. Whitham, professor at Iowa State University and co-director of the Crop Bioengineering Center. “In the last severe drought in 2012, we lost 9 percent of soybean yield. Disease and environmental stress such as drought are important factors that prevent the soybean crop from reaching its full yield potential.”

Researchers are also using gene editing to increase the protein content of soybeans for use in plant-based foods and as a source of feed for animals.

Three years ago, Best Food Facts spoke to Dr. Jessica Lyons at the University of California-Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) about using gene editing to improve cassava, an important part of the diet for nearly 1 billion people in the world. The plant contains compounds that can cause people to be poisoned from cyanide if the root has not been sufficiently processed. If people are ingesting the cyanide, over time, this can lead to neurological disorders.

For the team developing the cassava plant, the project has personal meaning.

“Growing up in a Colombian family, I knew cassava by the name yuca. It would be part of many delicious meals at home. So for me, there is a personal connection to working on this crop,” said Dr. Michael Gomez, also of the IGI. “I was surprised to learn about cassava’s toxicity and how it could negatively affect consumers in dire circumstances. Generating non-toxic cassava is a stellar use of the CRISPR technology and has the potential to mitigate global food challenges.”

The researchers are excited to see their research come to fruition.

“We have shown, in three different cassava varieties, that we have completely prevented cyanogenesis. That is, we have used genome editing to make plants that don’t make cyanide,” Dr. Lyons said. Read more about the research here.

What is gene editing?

“Gene editing is a very precise way of modifying genes within a plant cell. The types of edits that we create are no different than the variation in genes that occurs in nature,” Dr. Whitham said.

CRISPR is one common technique used for gene editing. The process is a way of speeding up the natural evolution of genetics.

“Traditional breeding methods can be laborious and time-consuming. With gene editing, the desired DNA alterations can be acquired within a single generation and the end product could be indistinguishable from a traditionally bred crop,” Dr. Gomez said.

How can gene editing help the environment?

In addition to improving food, gene editing can also help farmers control diseases and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

“There are many benefits to the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of producing soybeans, as well as reducing the application of crop protection products,” Dr. Whitham said. “We’re learning more about genes that control plant responses to disease and stress.”

By precisely editing these genes, the plants can be made to better resist disease and withstand stress. Scientists see many ways gene editing can be applied to create climate solutions.

“Genome editing is a great precision breeding tool. Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing climate, there’s an urgent need for new climate-resilient crop varieties, and this tool has the potential to help us breed them more quickly and more precisely than conventional breeding,” Dr. Lyons said. “It can have huge benefits for agriculture, including for disease resistance, and even for climate change mitigation — for example, it could be used to engineer plants with deeper roots that store more carbon in the soil.”

Dr. Voytas said gene editing might be used to develop soybean oil that is similar to palm oil. That enhances sustainability, as palm oil production often leads to deforestation and the oil must be transported great distances.

“We could easily use gene editing to create a palm oil equivalent that is produced locally and sustainably,” he said.

Gene editing is a technology being used to make precise changes in genetic material to improve food quality and increase the sustainability of farming and food.

Developed with support of United Soybean Board

The post What Benefits Can Gene Editing Bring to Food Quality and Sustainability? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Farmers are developing new and innovative technologies to improve the sustainability of crop farming, influencers learned during the 2020 Best Food Facts TASTE tour.

We hosted nine digital influencers for a virtual tour in July. The tour, originally planned to be in-person in central Iowa, was reformatted into three virtual discussions on these topics:

• Sustainable Crop Farming with a focus on crop practices and environmental stewardship
• Sustainable Food with conversations about food waste, processed foods, biotechnology and food affordability
• Sustainable Egg Farming, providing dialogue on hen housing and impacts on animal well-being, food affordability and natural resources

Brent Renner, an Iowa farmer, spoke to the influencers through a video call from his tractor to discuss the techniques that he uses to grow crops in the most sustainable way.

“Along with GPS, the monitor that steers my tractor is also capable of a lot of other things,” Renner said. “In regards to sustainability and trying to do more with less, which is another way to put it, is applying the perfect rate of whatever product you’re using, whether it’s chemical, fertilizer or insecticide, on the exact spot that it needs to be targeted.”

Dave Walton, who also farms in Iowa, said farmers have been funding research to find practical ways to make crop farming as sustainable as possible.

“We’re going to take that to a level that would boggle your mind,” he said. “Instead of using satellite imagery, which is kind of the standard now, we’re going to get to the point where you’re going to see little robots maybe the size of somebody’s little toy truck. There’s going to be a hundred of them running up and down the field taking pictures of plants in real-time and looking for leaf disease or insects or something that creates a stress on that plant. This technology is going to get down to the plant level, so we can treat one plant if that plant’s affected or 10 plants in a row if those 10 plants are affected.”

The influencers found the information presented by the farmers and other experts during the virtual tour very informative as they and their followers consider sustainable food choices. Other experts who took part in the tour were Shannon Tolliver, social responsibility and environmental sustainability manager for White Castle Systems, and Janet Helms, DVM, global sustainability developer Inter IKEA Group.

“My main takeaway was really about how they are constantly striving to be on the cutting edge of technology and striving to have the most efficient ways of farming both for their bottom line but also for the sustainability of their farm and the environment in the long run,” said Lisa Longly, who blogs at Wine and Glue.

Jocelyn Brubaker of Inside Bru Crew Life said she was surprised by the level of technology that farmers use.

“I’d say the thing I want my readers to know the most would be that farmers are always trying

to learn more. They want the land to continue. They want to be able to pass this land down to

future generations their kids, their grandkids, so they’re always doing more,” she said.

Farm tours have given Lynne Feifer, 365 Days of Baking, a greater awareness of the work that agriculture producers put into their work.

“It’s a 24/7 job and if we didn’t have farms, honestly, we would not have food. It’s important that we support these farmers. I feel that they are the backbone of America, and we need to keep them going. It’s so important,” she said.

The tour was part of Optimizing Sustainability, an initiative of The Center for Food Integrity that supports understand and prioritize factors to decisions that are most sustainable. In addition to the tour, Best Food Facts examined sustainability impacts and the topics of grass-fed and grain-fed beef, pesticides and GMOs. Learn more about the project and read all of the influencers articles.

The post A Conversation About Sustainable Farming appeared first on Best Food Facts.

All fries begin life as a potato, so how do they grow?

Dr. Douches: “The potato from a crop perspective is unusual in that it is vegetatively propagated (the new plant is grown from the original plant) rather than through a seed. However, over time the potatoes accumulate viruses from growing in the field and they start to degenerate. If you save an actual seed from this starchy vegetable, you don’t maintain the variety. The unique genetic combination you have is lost.

“Potato breeding remained largely unchanged for 50 years until recently. When USDA and universities invested in public potato breeding efforts, they started making crosses and taking those families to the field and making selections, going through cycles of evaluation selection to sort through and find the best potatoes.”

How have potatoes developed over time?

Dr. Douches: “It was a Rev. Goodrich in upstate New York who got some potatoes and started making crosses. Our Russet Burbank potato, which is used for making french fries, comes from that lineage. Russet Burbank actually came from a chance seedling that was selected by Luther Burbank in the 1860s. That potato hung around for a while and a Russet mutation was found in it in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Russet Burbank potato was well adapted to growing in the Pacific Northwest and so during World War II, they were using that to make potato flakes for the war effort. It was after World War II that the frozen fry industry started up as an innovative idea.”

How does genetic engineering play a role in making better potatoes?

Dr. Douches: “Having the ability to insert genes allows us to improve the traditional breeding practice because we can make a selection and have the potential to improve it further for certain key traits, like what has been done with the Innate potato. Some of those things are difficult, if not impossible, to do conventionally, as is the case with the insect resistance trait. Genetic engineering gives a tool to correct varieties that have some deficiencies and make them better for consumers, farmers and even processors, depending on the trait. Plus, we now have DNA sequence on the potato, which has allowed us to develop more analytical breeding schemes to follow certain genes in the potato. That’s really changing the landscape for the breeding.”

How can we know these GM (genetically modified) potatoes are safe to eat?

Dr. Douches: “They have to go through the federal regulatory agencies to get approval, which is a very extensive examination to determine whether the potatoes are safe to eat or safe to grow in the environment and whether they have any genes that may have an effect on the organisms in the environment. They look at insect-resistant genes, virus-resistant genes, and disease-resistant genes and whether they’re going to have any negative effects on the environment. Our non-GM food crops are not put through that gauntlet of analysis, so the most tested food we have out there is our GM-developed crops.”

What can we expect from potatoes in the future?

Dr. Douches: “They’re going to be self-driving and they’re going to fly like drones! No, what’s happening is the consumer is going to continue to get potatoes that are more healthful and are packed with more nutrition. But what they won’t see is that these potatoes are also performing on the farmers’ fields, giving them more resistance to the biotics problems like diseases and insects and also to problems like water needs or climate stresses.”

Potatoes are part of the equation; it also takes oil to give a french fry its flavor and texture. To learn more about innovation in oil, we went to Best Food Facts dietitian Sarah Downs.

What is new in frying oils?

Downs: “High-oleic soybeans are varieties developed with farmers and end-use consumers in mind. They have the same yields as other soybeans but offer higher-functioning soybean oil that remains stable in high-heat conditions, can add shelf life to products and, most importantly, contains less saturated fat, no trans-fat and has the highest amount of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat available in soy. Ultimately, high-oleic soybeans have a healthier oil profile and increased oil stability.”

What sets it apart from other oils?

Downs: “It has oil stability and contains monounsaturated fats. Many oils naturally are high in monounsaturated fats but are not very shelf stable.”

Does that mean it is healthier than other oils?

Downs: “There are many types of oils that can provide health benefits in moderation (canola and olive oil are two), and ultimately it depends on how you are using them because different oils are best for different types of cooking. High-oleic oil is a good choice because it is high in unsaturated fats, low in saturated fat and has no trans fat. Monounsaturated fats have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) without lowering HDL cholesterol (the good kind), which may help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.”

French fries and frying oils are truly a story of food innovation. Check out the infographic below to learn more about the evolution of the french fry.

The post The French Fry: How Innovation Has Made It Even Better appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Here are five things we learned:

1. Most farms are owned and operated by families.
The 2012 Census of Agriculture shows that 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are family-owned operations. Most farmers would tell you that working with their family is key to why they are so passionate about what they do.

“The biggest misconception I’ve heard would be that, as farms have gotten bigger, they have been labeled as factory farms. That we just use the land and move on. Yet, every farmer I know is very family-oriented. I love that our farm is something I can pass on to my family, a legacy, a business and a way of life that my kids love,” said William Layton, a third-generation Maryland farmer and owner of Layton’s Chance Vineyards and Winery.

Jenny Rhodes, University of Maryland Extension Educator in Agriculture and Natural Resources, who owns and operates a grain and broiler chicken farm with her family, said, “I love the whole family aspect and wanted my children to grow up the way I did. Instead of rushing home to spend a few hours with my family, we can spend time together working together. We are all family farms and at the end of the day it’s families working.”

#DYK 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the U.S. are family-owned operations?
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2. Farming is efficient because it is high tech.
Farmers use technology to make advances in producing more food that is more safe, affordable, and produced more efficiently than ever before. Layton said, “Many people have an idea of the old-fashioned farmer, but in reality I spend half of my time in the office making GPS maps for what is going on in the field at any given point. We also have tractors that drive themselves, so we are very technology-based, and technology creates efficiency.”

“Everything you do in farming has to be efficient and sustainable and I love working to improve the resources on our farm so that we can do that,” explained Jenny Schmidt, a registered dietitian and Maryland farmer, whose family produces corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, hay, tomatoes, green beans and wine grapes. “When I talk to people about pesticide usage on our farm, I explain that our sprayer for our tomatoes, green beans, wheat, corn and soybeans sprays at the rate of 15-20 gallons per acre for herbicides. It is a 750-gallon tank so using 15 gallons per acre, this sprayer can cover 50 acres per tank – that’s only 0.04 ounces per square foot. This type of efficiency wouldn’t be possible without technology. Also, many people think we are dousing our fields with pesticides, but that would be inefficient. Spraying isn’t dousing.” Learn more about how the “dose makes the poison” in pesticide usage in “Should You Be Concerned with Pesticides On Produce?”.

3. Farmers are passionate about producing food.
“The thing that I love most about farming is working hard and seeing the results of that hard work. At harvest, I love quitting at dark after a 14-hour day and seeing all that I’ve harvested right in front of me. It’s a great feeling to see that,” said Layton.

“Farming is a passionate job and requires patience to weather through the ups and downs. Ultimately, I love being able to care for the soil and land with the available resources and set the stage for the next generation,” said Schmidt.

Farming is a lifestyle, not just a job. It is 24 hours a day, seven days a week and every day of the year! (Yes, this means vacations are nearly impossible to take!)

4. Farmers use a variety of production methods.
Debates about “organic” and “conventional” crops suggest there are only two ways to grow food: a “good” way and a “bad” way. But an important question to think about is, “What is the best way to feed a growing population, while reducing the amount of resources required?” To address this, farming will need multiple approaches, not just one.

“Many farmers don’t want to be seen as one thing; for me, I want to be seen as both holistic and sustainable. For example, there are trade-offs with all production methods. And each provide different benefits: it’s not an either/or, it’s more about melding the practices together,” added Schmidt. Want to learn more about organic versus conventional? Check out “Organic versus Conventional Foods: Is There a Nutritional Difference?”.

5. There are many ways to become involved with agriculture.
Farm and ranch families make up just two percent of the U.S. population, while most people are at least three generations removed from agriculture. However, the farmers we chatted with all agreed that getting involved in agriculture is for everyone.

Rhodes said it’s important to know what your goal is: Do you want to learn more? Do you want to own your own farm? “After you figure out your goals, then you can decide how to reach them through things like farm tours, working with different national councils, talking with your University extension programs and, of course, talking with the farmers in your area.”

“Social media is a great place to start and to seek out transparent farmers if you have questions about food. I love sharing information about my farm and interesting news articles that are related to the happenings on my farm,” Schmidt added.

Layton concluded, “Agritourism, corn mazes, farm stands, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, farmers markets – these are all ways to connect with farmers. Talk with the farmers – they are happy to chat with you! I give tours twice a day every day at the winery and people ask questions not only about the grapes and wines but about our crops, too. I love answering these questions.”

Our food supply is abundant, affordable overall and among the world’s safest, thanks in large part to the efficiency and productivity of America’s farm and ranch families. Want to learn more about growing food? Reach out to a local farmer or let us know and we can connect you with one!

The post 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Farming appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Ever wonder why some crops only grow in certain areas of the country? Have any advances in technology made it possible for these growing regions to expand? We asked experts Wayne Parrot, PhD, Crop and Soil Scientist at the University of Georgia, and Stephen Baenziger, PhD, Agronomy and Horticulture Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for some thoughts on how technology has helped agriculture production.

Have there been any advances in food/crop technologies that could make new crops available to be grown in different regions?

Dr. Baenziger:

Farmers, scientists and agricultural companies are always looking for new traits. When you look at corn, technologies allow it to be more tolerant of freezes and farmers have tillage practices now that allow it to be grown in different areas. You take advantage of everything given to you, plant corn earlier and now it can recover from frost. Genetics can change the growing season, too. Some of that is by cultural practices and a lot of the advances are from biotechnology.

Dr. Parrott:

Extremes always limit crop growth – too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, as well as soil that is too acidic or too salty. Thus, tolerance to all these conditions is important. Already, there are corn hybrids that can still grow under dry conditions. The eucalyptus tree is one of the best sources of pulpwood for paper, but it’s a tropical tree that would not normally survive in the U.S. But a eucalyptus modified to survive in cold weather is being tested in the U.S. As such, it’s a great example of the type of crop we could see at some future date.

Have any advances in technology – food or crops, preservation or transportation – helped get food from one region to another?

Dr. Parrott:

Refrigeration and other technologies that keep fruit from ripening have made it possible to grow crops in the places that have the best growing conditions for them and ship them to consumers at very low cost. This has been accompanied by the development of varieties that can hold up to shipping. However, the old adage that it’s hard to get somethiing for nothing comes to bear here. Modern fruits and vegetables survive shipping, but at the expense of taste. The choice boils down to having great taste a few weeks of the year, or OK taste year ’round. With time, it will be possible to develop new varieties that ship well and preserve their taste.

Dr. Baenziger:

The biggest thing on that is that we have our technologies and supply chain very refined now. The food that the King of England ate long ago was not that different from the food we may have on our table, but the spoilage factor would have been extreme. That’s a huge difference. How much less food is wasted to get to us is extraordinary. Also, the technology to find and detect pathogens makes our food so much safer than it was in the past, and that’s all due to technology.

Do these improvements in technology affect food safety?

Dr. Baenziger:

Our food has never been safer. If we do have problems, we can find them and resolve them more quickly.

Dr. Parrott:

There are two technologies here. The ones used to improve plants and the ones used to produce and distribute food. Humans have developed hundreds of thousands of new varieties, with no more than a handful of issues, which makes plant variety development one of the safest technologies in history. Production and distribution technology have also contributed to keeping food safe for consumption. So in general, modern technology either has no effect or improves food safety.

What will the future look like regarding crops and growing areas? Any shifts or trends?

Dr. Baenziger:

It will continue to be market driven. Right now, they’re bringing out drought-tolerant corn. There has been a massive investment in corn, so naturally those crops will continue to expand. There is more private investment coming into wheat, so that’s probably good for wheat. Growers have to respond to the market and if they can get a better return per acre by growing a crop that’s heavily resourced over one that is not, the only way the secondary crop can compete is if the market pays a premium. As we become wealthier, you will see more diversity, but at the same time you will be paying for that diversity.

Dr. Parrott:

Ideally, food production technology needs to mazimize yields per area, while it minimizes the inputs and the environmental footprint of doing so. If past trends are any indication, we are on a good trend. Food production in the U.S. increased 50 percent in the past 30 years, while using slightly less land. However, future improvements cannot be taken for granted. What the future will look like depends on how much innovation is permitted. Globally, the legal and regulatory restrictions on agricultural innovation are at an all-time high and research investment is at a low period.

Have any other technologies helped improve foods?

Dr. Baenziger:

Technology has improved some foods by removing the anti-quality factors. Canola is a great example – the erucic acid, which has been linked with heart issues and other problems in animals, was removed. We’re making things that were industrial crops into human crops. That’s good for diversity in growing and for consumers who would like to buy their food locally. Agriculture has a long history of developing things to fit market need.

Has technology affected the environmental footprint of crops?

Dr. Parrott:

Economies of scale come into play when food is produced in the best area for it. Most people would be surprised to see how the agricultural environmental footprint is minimized when that is done – even if the food is then shipped long distance. When food is grown locally, people tend to forget that the inputs (seeds, fertilizer, protectants, and even water in some cases) for that crop are still shipped in from elsewhere!

Ultimately though, what genetic and agronomic technologies have in common is that they contribute to sustainability by increasing the yields that can be obtained in any given amount of land, while at the same time not using more inputs such as water, fertilizer, and other agricultural chemicals.

The post How Technology Helps Crops Grow appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Dr. Derek Heeren from the University of Nebraska explains how cosmic-ray probes and drones are being used on farms. Turns out, they’re aiding farmers in conserving one of the planet’s most precious resources.

What methods do farmers use to help conserve water?

Farmers use what is known as variable-rate irrigation (VRI), defined as “the ability to spatially vary water application depths across a field to address specific soil, crop, and/or other conditions.” VRI allows us to reduce over-irrigation on some parts of a field and under-irrigation on other parts of a field. In some cases, VRI may increase yields if low areas of a field suffer yield loss from too much water. Currently, most VRI systems use speed control on a center pivot irrigator, which can apply different amounts of water in sectors or pie slices. Zone control allows for much smaller management zones by controlling water applications on individual sprinklers or groups of sprinklers.

Why is it important for water conservation?

VRI has the potential to reduce groundwater or surface water pumping by reducing irrigation on acres that don’t need as much water. For example, heavy soils can store more early season rainfall and won’t need as much irrigation. Over-irrigation often results in water moving past the root zone and carrying nitrate and other solutes to the groundwater; VRI can help protect the quality of groundwater by reducing over-irrigation. VRI can be used to eliminate irrigation on any waterways or streams in a field, which is especially important if the irrigation is used to apply fertilizer or wastewater. Finally, VRI can be used to reduce irrigation on hill slopes that have a low capacity for infiltration and a high potential for runoff and soil erosion.

What other technologies are farmers using? Cosmic-ray probes? Drones? How are these helping?

Consultants such as CropMetrics frequently rely on electrical conductivity (EC) mapping of the soil and GPS data to characterize the topography in order to develop irrigation prescription maps. The EC is important because it often correlates to the water-holding capacity of the soil. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the Daugherty Water for Food Institute (DWFI) are leading research using cosmic-ray probes to measure soil water content spatially in fields, which could then be used to develop prescription maps. UNL and the DWFI are also leading research on unmanned aircraft systems as a way to collect imagery to quantify crop water use spatially, which allows soil water content to be estimated spatially.

Why is technology important when it comes to growing food?

A growing population and environmental concerns require us to be good stewards of the natural resources that have been entrusted to us. Technology has been critical in increasing the efficiency of our food production system, and will continue to be critical as we learn to manage our resources more precisely.

_{The image “Farming” by Mauricio Lima is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

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