Farm to Food Gene Editing: The Future of Agriculture

D&C: New York must support, not impede, farming

November 23, 2020 by Admin

November 23rd, 2020

Keith Kimball Guest essayist

If I were to highlight the most important theme to come out of 2020 so far, it would be the importance of science.  But this is where things get a bit divided. As diligent as New York and our leaders have been in navigating the pandemic and utilizing facts and science to do so, as a farmer, I often see politics, rather than science driving the conversation and policy around the tools I use to manage my crops.

Earlier this year, legislation was passed in Albany that, if signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, could have a devastating impact on the ability for farmers to grow food across the state.  This legislation bans the use of glyphosate on state owned lands.

Why would that impact farmers?  Well, because many of us lease state land to supplement our existing farms. There are more than 5,000 acres of state-leased agricultural lands in New York.

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BARDA, Department of Defense, and SAb Biotherapeutics to Partner to Develop a Novel COVID-19 Therapeutic

April 2, 2020 by Admin

Published by Medical Counter Measures

A therapeutic to treat novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is moving forward in development through a partnership between BARDA, the Department of Defense Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (JPEO – CBRND), and SAb Biotherapeutics, Inc. (SAb), of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Using an interagency agreement with JPEO’s Medical CBRN Defense Consortium, BARDA transferred approximately $7.2 million in funding to (JPEO – CBRND) to support SAb to complete manufacturing and preclinical studies, with an option to conduct a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Read the full press release here.

Agri-Pulse: Can cows be used to fight coronavirus?

March 27, 2020 by Admin

Bovine plasma donors genetically engineered to produce human antibodies are in the front lines of the struggle against coronavirus.

SAB Biotherapeutics, a Sioux Falls, S.D., biotechnology company that has been successfully testing use of antibodies from cows to fight diseases such as another coronavirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome, now is engaged in developing a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Read the full article here.