International science journal Nature Biotechnology has taken the Western Australian agriculture minister Kim Chance to task for funding a supposedly independent study of the health effects of genetically modified food crops by an Adelaide research institute renowned for its anti-GM activism.

Perth agbiotech company Grain Biotech Australia harvested its first trial crop of genetically modified, salt-tolerant wheat this month, grown in salt-affected farmland near Corrigin, in Western Australia.

Manipulating the genome before fertilisation could prove more successful that current technique used in animal transgenesis, Graeme O'Neill reports.

Graeme O'Neill reports back from the recent CSIRO Horizons in Livestock Science conference at the Gold Coast, which addressed the progress, challenges and problems associated with redesigning livestock.

Comparative genomics is helping speed up the identification of genes for desirable production traits in livestock, Graeme O'Neill reports.

While commercialisation of biotech crops in Australia remains frozen by state moratoriums, South African farmers are following their peers in China, India and South American nations in enthusiastically embracing the new age of agriculture, according to a South African industry leader.

Brisbane agbiotech Farmacule BioIndustries has taken a step towards the era of molecular 'pharming' by producing vitronectin, a high-value human protein used in medical research, in genetically modified tobacco plants.

CSIRO Plant Industry researchers have abandoned a project to develop a genetically modified field pea with resistance to the pea weevil, Bruchus pisorum.

The taskforce appointed by the Australian Oilseeds Federation and the Australian Seeds Federation to investigate the recent detection of genetically modified canola seed in a small, non-GM shipment has found the contamination was limited to just one commercial cultivar.

It would take only four years to completely replace today's farmed chickens with genetically modified breeds fully resistant to infection to avian influenza, according to a visiting British molecular virologist.

Melbourne-based novelty flower developer Florigene is planning the first field trial of its genetically modified roses carrying the company's proprietary 'blue gene' technology.