Gut flora in animals such as Passalid Beetles which rely on woody plants as a food source may provide insight as to how we might process lignocellulosic biomass more efficiently.

Researchers from the Netherlands have used metagenomics to discover that microorganisms living inside plant roots can help protect the plant from fungal infections and stress as well as increase the plant’s growth.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released Guiding Principles and Key Elements for Establishing a Weight of Evidence for Chemical Assessment in October 2019 which describes universal guiding principles for developing systematic approaches to weight of evidence (WoE) for chemical evaluations.

A consortium founded by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and consisting of over 22 Japanese universities, research institutes and industry partners debuted the Nano Cellulose Vehicle (NCV) at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 2019.

A bill which has been introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives would require plant-based and cell-cultured meat to be labeled as “imitation meat food product”.