The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) promotes scientific collaboration that advances public health and well-being. Their International Food Biotechnology Committee (IFBiC) hosted a workshop on plant composition last month in Washington, DC. They recorded the talks and posted them for all to view (ILSI’s YouTube channel has a lot of other great material, too).
The talks are pretty easy to understand, given for a wide audience. Each speaker has a unique perspective and I think one of the best parts of these talks is that they aren’t very formal so you really get that these scientists are real people. I hope you’ll take a look! Here’s the opening presentation to get you started, links to the rest are provided below.
Opening Presentation
- Keynote Presentation and Discussion: The Genetics and Consequences of Crop Domestication. Sherry Flint-Garcia, USDA ARS, USA
Session 1: Conventional Development of New Crop Varieties
- Presentation 1.1: Traditional and Modern Plant Breeding Methods with Discussion of Cases on Rice. Flavio Breseghello, Embrapa, Brazil
- Presentation 1.2: Genomic Variation in Plants Recovered Through Plant Cell and Tissue Culture. John Finer, The Ohio State University, USA
- Presentation 1.3: Mineral Biofortification Strategies for Major Staples: the Example of Common Bean. Matthew Blair, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia and Cornell University, USA
- Presentation 1.4: Natural Variability in Wheat Grain Composition. Peter Shewry, Rothamsted Research, UK
- Session 1: Panel Question and Answer
Session 2: Development of Crops Using Modern Biotechnology
- Presentation 2.1: A Look at Product Development with Genetically Modified Crops: Examples from Maize. Rita Mumm, University of Illinois, USA
- Presentation 2.2: Bringing a Transgenic Crop to Market – Where Compositional Analysis Fits. Laura Privalle, BASF Plant Science, USA
- Presentation 2.3: Availability and Utility of Crop Composition Data. Kazumi Kitta, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Japan
- Session 2: Panel Question and Answer
Session 3: Compositional Analysis Methods
- Presentation 3.1: OECD Composition Consensus Documents. Kathleen Jones, US FDA, USA
- Presentation 3.2: How Composition Methods are Developed and Validated. Hilary Rogers, Eurofins Scientific, USA
- Presentation 3.3: Evaluation of Endogenous Allergens for the Safety Evaluation of Genetically Engineered Food Crops: A Review of Methods and Relevance. Richard Goodman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
- Session 3: Panel Question and Answer
Session 4: Interpretation of Composition Data
- Presentation 4.1: Food Safety: Importance of Composition. Wilna Jansen van Rijssen, personal capacity (retired from the South African Department of Health), South Africa
- Presentation 4.2: Biological Importance and Statistical Significance. David Lovell, University of London, UK [Note: Video not available]
- Presentation 4.3: Regulatory Perspectives on How Composition Data are Interpreted – Food. Lynne Underhill, Health Canada, Canada
- Presentation 4.4: Regulatory Perspectives on How Composition Data are Interpreted – Feed. Bill Price, US FDA (Retired), USA
- Session 4: Panel Question and Answer [Note: Video not available]
Final Wrap-Up
- Final Wrap-Up with Review of Reports from All Round Table Discussions and Next Steps. Co-chair: ILSI IFBiC Crop Composition Issues Task Force, Angela Hendrickson Culler, Monsanto Company, USA
