Last week CSIRO announced their success at breeding a new type of pasta wheat that can grow in saline soils. Not only is this a tremendous break-through for Australian farmers but the new wheat variety was created using safe conventional breeding techniques. I.e. It’s not GM!

The new wheat was created by crossing an ancient variety of wheat with a new commercial variety using modern biotechnology. This type of biotechnology doesn’t involve meddling with the genome and is not as risky for human health or the environment. It is also a much faster and more efficient way to create crops with complex traits such as drought and salt tolerance. We hope to see more money put into this kind of research in the future.

Take Action > Visit the CSIRO facebook page and urge them to invest more of our public money in safe plant breeding and not GM.

Read more about ‘Smart Breeding’ for resilient new crops without the need for genetic engineering, click here