Japan's first gene-edited food is a tomato that contains four to five times more GABA, a substance reported to be effective in controlling high blood pressure.
Cattle eat feed in a cowshed in Betsukai, Hokkaido, in February 2020. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Researchers are working on a way to dramatically reduce the methane gas that cows burp out, in the hope that it can help mitigate global warming.
The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) is developing technology to constantly monitor microorganisms in cattle’s stomachs as well as feed to suppress the functions of methane-producing bacteria.
The research organization, which is affiliated with the agriculture ministry, aims to cut the amount of methane cattle emit by 80 percent by 2050.
Methane has 25 times more of a heat-trapping greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide. Cow burps and farts account for more than 10 percent of greenhouse gases emitted in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries, according to the agriculture ministry.
The ban comes in response to concerns seeds and saplings of domestic varieties of plants registered in Japan have been grown and sold abroad in recent years.