[…] Nanotechnology, science on the scale of atoms and molecules, could give developing nations new ways to diagnose and treat disease and make clean water more available, if governments, nongovernmental organizations, industry and others would work to apply the powerful technology to these challenges, scientists say.

[…] Research that began approximately 15 years ago on these and other traits in a variety of crops continues today in laboratories around the world. So far, the United States has approved more than 70 genetically modified crops. These crops, which can be grown commercially, include canola, papaya, potato, rice, squash, sugar beets, tomato and tobacco, which is used to help produce a vaccine that fights against a type of lymphoma, said Newell-McGloughlin.

[…] The rate of adoption of biotech crops worldwide is the highest of any crop technology, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) said in a report released January 18. There is "cautious optimism" that the growth rate between 2007 and 2015 might surpass that of biotech's first decade, as more biotech crops are expected to be developed for biofuel production, the ISAAA reports in Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2006.

[…] Officials from more than 120 countries are meeting through November 4 in Rome to review progress towards meeting the internationally agreed goal set in 1996 of reducing by half by 2015 the number of hungry people in the world.
Greater development of native African plants "would be a boon" especially to women in Africa because women comprise a "large share" of the region's farmers, NAS said in releasing its second of three reports evaluating African plant resources that could help secure the region's food supply.

[…] Speaking to the Washington File in advance of World Food Day, Terpstra said that, through in-country technical assistance and exchange programs, USDA is helping governments learn how to adopt "transparent, efficient and science-based" food safety regulations that are replacing "arbitrary bans" on the import of biotechnology products. The programs also increase countries' abilities to maintain food safety within their boundaries, she said.

[…] "I urge the EU to fully comply with its WTO obligations and consider all outstanding biotech product applications and evaluate their scientific merits in accordance with the EU's own laws," Schwab said. The decision upholds a challenge brought to the WTO in 2003 by the United States, Canada and Argentina. The three countries said the moratorium on biotech application approvals, adopted in 1998, did not comply with WTO trade rules.

[…] United States Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of the United States, Argentina, and Canada in their WTO case against the European Union (EU) over its illegal moratorium on approving agricultural biotech products and unjustified EU member - state bans of previously approved products.

[…] Rice grown anywhere in the world soon could be made completely flood-tolerant because of new research by geneticists at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) in collaboration with scientists at the University of California-Davis and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

[…] Publication of these findings have had a ripple effect of their own, Whitham said. Members of his team have been contacted by researchers in an array of disciplines who are interested in pursuing the work.
Inquiries have come from countries as biologically dissimilar as Sweden, South Africa and Indonesia, Whitham said, and exploratory talks are under way to launch related experiments in other countries