The Field of Vegetable Operations

In this short speculation, I imagine a future forest that has been disturbed by invasive species, a changing climate, and engineered plant sensors. By staging this encounter between a wandering hiker, who never quite realizes that he is being watched, and MetaBee™ #21783, a drone that watches over nanobionic spinach, I feel out the strangeness of this burgeoning mode of surveillance. In my own research, I term this operationalization of pollinator-plant relations, in which drones harvest information from engineered plants instead of pollen, a “vital informatics.” That is to say, I argue that current military research into nanobionic and genetically engineered plants constitutes a living information science that integrates organic systems into data collection, storage, and processing.

Sowing and Cultivating the Seed of Diversity in Agri-Food: Intellectual Property Protection in Transnational and Comparative Perspective

This article combines intellectual property and comparative law insights to propose an evolutionary analysis of protection for seeds in the contemporary legal order. From a regime of commons for seeds, to plant variety protection, to patents for genetically engineered plants, exclusive rights have been progressively introduced for innovators in the field of agriculture to provide incentives in a world of growing need for food and raw materials. Such evolution has caused reduced common practices in agriculture that implied the freedom to save and exchange seeds. Among other values, a potential loss of biodiversity is the consequence. Likewise, legal systems tend to converge towards certain models of protection for innovators, although regulatory competition can exert significant pressure on states to preserve alternative models and offer solutions that balance all the values at stake.**

The Role of IPR in Plant Genetic Engineering

The role and status of Patent laws in the protection of plant species which have been genetically modified is currently uncertain in India. Discussions and debates regarding the same are rife and experts have different views regarding the whole aspect concerning economical and ethical considerations. Genetically engineered plants and modified crop plants are of significant economic value. In India, they face critical challenges, for instance, the requirement of dependable public policies and vigorous frameworks for regulatory control. This becomes much more vital since India desires to be an economic superpower primarily based on innovation. It is very important for a person from the legal field, especially those interested in the field of IPR, to have clarity regarding the protection of genetically modified plants. This humble attempt at a research paper seeks to clarify the same and discusses the various aspects on which one should think while concluding their views on the topic.

Genetic Engineering and Editing of Plants: An Analysis of New and Persisting Questions

Genetic engineering is a molecular biology technique that enables a gene or genes to be inserted into a plant's genome. The first genetically engineered plants were grown commercially in 1996, and the most common genetically engineered traits are herbicide and insect resistance. Questions and concerns have been raised about the effects of these traits on the environment and human health, many of which are addressed in a pair of 2008 and 2009 Annual Review of Plant Biology articles. As new science is published and new techniques like genome editing emerge, reanalysis of some of these issues, and a look at emerging issues, is warranted. Herein, an analysis of relevant scientific literature is used to present a scientific perspective on selected topics related to genetic engineering and genome editing.