Davis, California
January 7, 2009
Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.,
an agricultural technology company focused on developing
technologies and products that benefit the environment and human
health, today announced it has reached a research and commercial
development agreement with
Targeted Growth, Inc.
(TGI) for the development of herbicide-tolerant wheat. Under
terms of the license, TGI receives exclusive global rights to
the use of Arcadia’s herbicide-tolerant wheat plants developed
through advanced genetic screening technology. Arcadia receives
an upfront payment, milestone payments and a share of commercial
sales.
Herbicide-tolerant crops enable farmers to increase crop yields
by using herbicides to control weeds while not harming the crops
themselves. The use of herbicide-tolerant crops also allows
farmers to use no-till farming, a practice that minimizes runoff
of nutrient-rich topsoil and reduces the amount of greenhouse
gas emitted from tilling soil. Herbicide-tolerant crops can help
reduce overall herbicide use and shift usage to low toxicity
herbicides. While herbicide-tolerant crops have been in
cultivation since 1995, herbicide-tolerant wheat is not yet
commercially available. Arcadia has made significant
achievements in the development of herbicide-resistant wheat
using an advanced technique that screens large populations of
plants for difficult-to-find genetic variations.
“Herbicide-resistant crops deliver a distinct benefit to growers
and to the environment by increasing crop yields and reducing
the need to till the soil. Considering that wheat is the world’s
largest acreage crop and that herbicide-resistant varieties are
not yet commercially available, we see a significant opportunity
to help wheat growers increase farm yields and profitability
while minimizing overall environmental impact. And, by using
Arcadia’s genetic screening technology to develop new wheat
varieties, we can offer farmers additional choices based upon
their seed preferences,” said Eric Rey, president and CEO of
Arcadia. “Targeted Growth has made exciting advances in the
areas of molecular breeding and other advanced agricultural
technology tools. This expertise combined with the progress
we’ve made with respect to genetic screening technology can
expedite the process of making commercially available
herbicide-resistant wheat a reality.”
"We've been very successful in leveraging our technology to
increase agricultural crop yields," said Tom Todaro, CEO of
Targeted Growth. "A herbicide-tolerant wheat coupled with
increased yield would provide a valuable product set for wheat
farmers around the world."
“Arcadia is very good at matching the right tools with
individual plant improvement goals in a way that shortens
development timeframes, minimizes development costs and reaches
the desired outcomes,” said Dr. David Collier, managing director
of CMEA Capital, an investor in Arcadia. “In the case of
herbicide-tolerant wheat, Arcadia has reached major milestones
using an advanced screening technology and traditional breeding.
Since the technique used to develop herbicide-tolerant wheat
simply identifies genetic variation in plant populations, it
does not require regulatory oversight and can make these new
varieties available sooner than if they had been developed using
some other techniques.”
Based in Davis, Calif., with additional facilities in
Seattle, Wash. and Phoenix, Ariz., Arcadia Biosciences is an
agricultural technology company focused on the development of
agricultural products that improve the environment and enhance
human health.
Targeted Growth, Inc. was founded in 1999 with a goal of
developing technologies that would increase the productivity of
existing farmland and create new crops for use on land otherwise
unsuitable for agriculture. Today, Targeted Growth is a global
leader in bioscience, having developed technologies that both
increase seed size and yield in major biofuel crops. The company
has strategic partnerships with leading researchers and
agribusinesses around the world. Targeted Growth is based in
Seattle, Wash., with labs in Seattle, Saskatchewan, Ottawa and
New Brunswick.
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