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Gene editing could revolutionize the food industry

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In his greenhouse at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, N.Y., plant geneticist Zach Lippman is growing cherry tomatoes.

But they don’t look like the ones that most people grow in their gardens and greenhouses.

Lippman’s tomatoes have shorter stems and the fruit is more tightly clustered, looking more like grapes.

“With gene editing, we now have the ability to fine-tune at will,” he said. “So instead of having black or white, small fruit [or] big fruit, you can have everything in between.”

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Lippman used CRISPR — a revolutionary gene-editing tool that can quickly and precisely edit DNA — to tweak three of the plant’s genes, and make them suitable for large-scale urban agriculture for the first time.

 

Lippman’s cherry tomatoes have shorter stems, and the fruit is more tightly clustered, looking more like grapes. (David Malosh)

 

With CRISPR, researchers can precisely target and cut any kind of genetic material. Don’t want your mushrooms to turn brown after a few days? Remove the gene that causes that and problem solved.

There’s a lot of excitement about the introduction of gene-edited products into the Canadian food system over the next few years, but a lot of trepidation as well.

The food industry’s last foray into genetic engineering — genetically modified organisms (GMOs) — in the 1990s was a financial success. But the practice is an ongoing public relations nightmare, as many Canadians remain wary of products critics have labelled “Frankenfoods.”

Public perception of modified foods

Currently, the only gene-edited product commercially available is a soybean oil being used by a restaurant chain in the American Midwest for cooking and salad dressings. It has a longer shelf life than other cooking oils and produces less saturated fat and no trans fat.

Ian Affleck, vice-president of plant biotechnology at CropLife Canada, a trade association that represents Canadian manufacturers of pesticides and plant-breeding products, estimates the soybean oil might be in Canada in a year or two, followed by some altered fruits and vegetables.

Even then, he said, supplies will likely be limited while farmers and food companies determine if consumers will embrace genetically edited food.

 

Ian Affleck is vice-president of plant biotechnology at CropLife Canada, a trade association that represents Canadian manufacturers of pesticides and plant breeding products. (CropLife Canada)

 

All the major health organizations in the world, including Health Canada, have concluded that eating GMO foods does not pose either short or long-term health risks.

According to the World Health Organization, GMO goods currently approved for the market “have passed safety assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health.”

But Canadians remain stubbornly unconvinced — even though about 90 per cent of the corn, soybeans and canola grown in Canada is genetically modified, as is almost all of the processed food we consume.

A 2018 poll by market research company Statista found only 37 per cent of people surveyed strongly or somewhat strongly agreed that GMOs were safe to eat, while 34 per cent strongly or somewhat strongly disagreed.

Industry representatives now say they spent too much time marketing their GMO products to farmers — and not enough time communicating the benefits to consumers.

“We spoke to two per cent of the population, who are those who farm,” said Affleck. “And those who opposed the technology spoke to the other 98 per cent of the population.”

“We thought it was just another transition in plant breeding,” recalled Stuart Smyth, who holds the University of Saskatchewan’s industry-funded research chair in agri-food innovation. “Nobody expected the environmental groups to develop into a political opposition.”

With gene-edited foods, Smyth believes the industry needs to focus on public education to counteract what he calls the “propaganda” that will be coming from the other side.

CRISPR vs. GMO

Gene-edited foods will differ from GMOs in one important respect.

When foods are genetically modified, foreign genes are often added to an existing genome. If you want a vegetable to grow better in cold weather, you could add a gene from a fish that lives in icy water. That’s what earned GMO products the “Frankenfoods” moniker.

With gene-editing tools like CRISPR, genes can be cut out, or “turned off,” but nothing new is added to the genome.

Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, isn’t convinced there’s a significant difference.

“The new techniques of gene editing are clearly techniques of genetic engineering,” she said. “They are all invasive methods of changing a genome directly at the molecular level.

“While we can produce organisms with new traits, that doesn’t mean we know exactly all of what we’ve done to that organism. There can be many unintended effects,” Sharratt further argued.

 

‘The new techniques of gene editing are clearly techniques of genetic engineering,’ says Lucy Sharratt, a co-ordinator with the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. (Canadian Biotechnology Action Network)

 

Unlike GMOs, which require extensive regulatory approval before going to market, gene-edited foods will likely appear without undergoing a risk assessment by Canadian regulators.

Health Canada doesn’t require safety testing for new products if it determines those products aren’t introducing “novel traits” into the food system. Since it considers gene editing to be an extension of traditional plant breeding, no stamp of approval will be necessary.

That concerns Jennifer Kuzma, co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University, who thinks gene-edited products should be tracked and monitored “for those low-level health effects that some products might be contributing to.”

Sharratt is also skeptical that gene editing will produce the benefits its supporters claim, pointing to “a biotech industry that has oversold technology and made all kinds of broad promises for the use of genetic engineering that didn’t come to pass.” Things like reduced pesticide use and greater drought resistance, for example.

 

Jennifer Kuzma is co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Centre at North Carolina State University. (Marc Hall/Submitted by Jennifer Kuzma)

 

Kuzma agrees that GMO researchers have sometimes been guilty of “perhaps overstating the promise of the technology and understating potential risk.” But she believes those involved in developing gene-editing techniques want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

“They have a really sincere desire to be more open and transparent in the ways that they communicate and in the sharing of information,” she said. “They do realize that the first generation of genetic engineering did not go so well from a public confidence perspective.”

No labels

The GMO food industry has fiercely opposed one of the most obvious methods to boost public confidence: mandatory labelling, even as a 2018 survey from Dalhousie University showed an overwhelming majority of Canadians support it.

Sixty-four countries require mandatory labelling for GMO products. Canada is not one of them.

There are no plans to require mandatory labelling of gene-edited foods, either.

Jonathan Latham, executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, a New York-based non-profit organization that researches genetic engineering, thinks that’s a mistake.

“If you want people to make informed decisions and you want them to make that in a democratic fashion, then the more information you give them, the better,” he said. “And so to deny people information about the content of their food is to violate a very basic democratic right.”

Latham also believes that not labelling genetically engineered products increases consumer skepticism.

“[Consumers] don’t really understand why, if a company wants to produce a product and advertise it and tell everybody how good it is, why they shouldn’t also want to label it,” he said.

Sharratt would like to see Canada adopt the approach taken by the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2018 that gene-edited foods must undergo the same testing as GMOs before being allowed on grocery store shelves.

 

Lippman believes the benefits of gene-edited foods will spur a growth in demand from the public. (David Malosh)

 

Lippman doesn’t believe that will happen. In fact, he thinks the potential of gene-edited foods is so great that the public will demand even greater access to such products.

“People will start to be educated and see that there’s nothing harmful about it. It’s completely fine. And then the only issue sticking out there will be whether we’re over-promising. That’ll be it.”

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Calgary breaks all-time record in housing starts but increasing demand keeps inventory low – CBC.ca

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Soaring housing demands in Calgary led to an all-time record for new residential builds last year, but inventory levels of completed and unsold units remained low due to demand outpacing supply.

According to the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), total housing starts increased by 13 per cent in Calgary, reaching a total of 19,579 units with growth across all dwelling types in the city.

That compares to a decline of 0.5 per cent overall for housing starts in the six major Canadian cities surveyed by CMHC.

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Calgary also had the highest housing starts by population.

“Part of the reason why we think that might have happened is that developers are responding to low vacancies in the rental market,” said Adebola Omosola, a housing economics specialist with CMHC.

“The population of Calgary is still growing, a record number of people moved here last year, and we still expect that to remain at least in the short term.”

Earlier this year, the Calgary Real Estate Board also predicted that demand, especially for rental apartments, wouldn’t let up any time soon. 

Industry can cope with demand, expert says

According to numbers from the report, average construction times were higher in 2023 for all dwelling types except for apartments.

The agency’s report suggests the increase in the number of under-construction residential projects might mean builders are operating at or near full capacity.

However, there’s optimism the construction industry can match the increasing need.

Brian Hahn, CEO of BILD Calgary Region, said despite concerns around about construction costs, project timelines and labour shortages, the industry has kept up with the demand for new builds.

Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary region CEO Brian Hahn.
Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary Region chief executive officer Brian Hahn. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

“I’ve heard that kind of conversation at the end of 2022 and I heard it in 2023,” Hahn said.

“Yet here we are early in 2024, and January and February were record numbers again.”

Hahn added he believes the current pace of construction will continue for at least the next six months and that the industry is looking at initiatives to attract more people to the trades.

Increase in row house and apartment construction

Construction growth was largely driven by new apartment projects, making up almost half of the housing starts in Calgary in 2023.

The federal housing agency says 9,034 apartment units were started that year, an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year. Of those, about 54 per cent were purpose-built rentals.

Apartments made up around two-thirds of all units under construction, CMHC said, with the total number of units under construction reaching 23,473.

Growth, however, was seen across all dwelling types. Row homes increased by 34 per cent from the previous year while groundbreaking on single-detached homes grew by two per cent.

“Notwithstanding challenges, our members and the industry counterparts that support them managed to produce a record amount of starts and completions,” Hahn said.

“I have little doubt that the industry will do their very best to keep pace at those levels.”

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Ottawa real estate: House starts down, apartments up in 2023 – CTV News Ottawa

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Rental housing dominated construction in Ottawa last year, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Residential construction declined significantly in 2023, with housing starts dropping to 9,245 units, a 19.5 per cent decline from the record high observed in 2022. But while single-detached and row housing starts fell compared to 2022, new construction for rental units and condominiums rose.

“There’s been a shift toward rental construction over the past two years. Rental housing starts made up nearly one third of total starts in 2023, close to double the average of the previous five years,” the report stated.

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Apartment starts reached their highest level since the 1970s.

“The trend toward rental and condominium apartment construction follows increased demand in these market segments due to population growth, households looking for affordable options, and some seniors downsizing to smaller units,” the CMHC said.

Demand from international migration and students, the high cost of home ownership, and people moving to Ottawa from other parts of Ontario were the main drivers for rental housing starts in 2023. The CMHC says rental and condominium apartment starts made up 63 per cent of total starts in 2023, compared to the average of 37 per cent for the period 2018-2022.

There was a modest increase in rental housing starts in 2023 over the record-high seen the year prior and a jump in new condominiums. The report shows 5,846 new apartments were built in Ottawa last year, up 2.1 per cent compared to 2022.

Housing starts in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Big demand for condos

The CMHC said condo starts reached a new high in 2023, increasing 3 per cent from 2022 numbers.

“As of the end of 2023, there were only 13 completed and unsold condominium units, highlighting continued demand for new units,” the CMHC said.

Condominum starts increased in areas such as Chinatown, Hintonburg, Vanier and Alta Vista, as well as some suburban areas like Kanata, Stittsville, and western Orléans. Condo apartment construction declined in denser parts of the city like downtown, Lowertown and Centretown, the report says.

Taller buildings are also becoming more common, as the cranes dotting the skyline can attest. The CMHC notes that buildings with more than 20 storeys accounted for nearly 10 per cent of apartment structure starts in 2022 and 2023, compared to an average of 2 per cent over the 2017-2021 period. The number of units per building also rose 7 per cent compared to 2022.

Apartment building heights in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Single-detached home construction down significantly

The number of new single-detached homes built in Ottawa last year was the lowest level seen in the city since the mid 1990s, CMHC said.

“The Ottawa area experienced a slowdown in residential construction in 2023, driven by a significant decline in single-detached and row housing starts,” the CMHC said.

Single-detached housing starts were down 45 per cent compared to 2022. Row house starts dropped by 38 per cent compared to 2022, marking a third year of declines in a row.

“Demand for single-detached and row houses also declined in 2023. Higher mortgage rates and home prices have led to a shift in demand toward more affordable rental and condominium units,” the report said.

There were 1,535 single-detached housing starts in Ottawa last year, 208 new semi-detached homes and 1,678 new row houses.

The majority of single-detached and row housing starts were built in suburban communities such as Barrhaven, Stittsville, Kanata, Orléans and rural parts of the city.

“Increased construction costs resulting from higher financing rates and inflation that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the decline in construction in the region,” the CMHC said. 

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Trump’s media company ticker leads to fleeting windfall for some investors

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A man looks at a screen that displays trading information about shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group, outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, U.S., March 26.Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Possible confusion over the new stock symbol for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social (DJT-Q) saw some investor brokerage balances briefly jump by hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tuesday, the first day Trump’s “DJT” ticker traded.

Several people complained on social media about briefly seeing the value of their DJT stock holdings on Charles Schwab platforms inflated to figures more in line with what they would be worth if the shares traded at the level of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Some users said they faced a similar issue in pre-market hours on Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade trading platform.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group opened Tuesday at $70.90, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average started the session at 15,937.73 points.

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For one trader, the Schwab brokerage balance jumped by more than $1 million due to the error, according to a screen grab shared on social media platform X. Reuters was unable to contact the trader or independently verify the brokerage balance.

“It sure was nice seeing millions in the account, even if it wasn’t real,” another person, going by the username @DanielBenjamin8, who faced the issue in his E*Trade account, posted on X.

Two X users and one on Reddit surmised that the inflated balances were due to the ticker symbol for the company being nearly identical to the index.

A spokeswoman for Charles Schwab said that certain users on some of Schwab’s trading platforms saw their brokerage balances briefly inflated due to a technical issue.

The issue has been resolved and investors are able to trade equities and options on Schwab platforms, she said. Schwab declined to describe the exact cause of the issue.

E*Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

Trump Media & Technology Group and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index, did not immediately comment on the issue.

While social media users said the issue appeared to have been resolved, many rued not being able to cash out their supposed gains from the error.

“I better go tell my boss that I’m actually not retiring,” the trader whose account balance had briefly jump by more than $1 million, wrote on X.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares surged more than 36% on Tuesday in their debut on the Nasdaq that comes more than two years since its merger with a blank-check firm was announced.

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