Forage Genetics International

Forage Genetics International is the union of industry-leading forage companies whose history of alfalfa innovations dates back to the 1950s. Brought together in 1991, they've leveraged their collective strength to advance the forage industry and meet the needs of a diverse and growing world.  Their breeding expertise combined with their proprietary germplasm base and global reach allows us to develop unique seed varieties for diverse growing conditions, making us the world leader in value-added genetics. They're proud to provide not only the seed in the bag, but the expertise, research and technology that help growers succeed.

<div>Forage Genetics International (FGI), a subsidiary of Land O&rsquo;Lakes, is a leading provider of alfalfa seed, genetics, and traits since 1991. The company develops improved alfalfa varieties and technologies for increased crop yield and resilience to disease and weeds using marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering.</div>

Enhancing seed and crop traits via biotechnology

Crop Biotech

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 Forage Genetics International (FGI), a subsidiary of Land O&rsquo;Lakes, is a leading provider of alfalfa seed, genetics, and traits since 1991. The company develops improved alfalfa varieties and technologies for increased crop yield and resilience to disease and weeds using marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering.
 
 
 One of FGI's notable products is the HarvXtra Alfalfa trait, developed with genetic&nbsp;engineering, which reduces lignin content in alfalfa, resulting in higher quality forage and increased flexibility in harvest timing. FGI&rsquo;s other products are the Roundup Ready Alfalfa and the Ultracut Alfalfa Disease Package; the former integrates weed control and the latter provides resistance against the Anthracnose and Aphanomyces diseases.
 
 
 As of 2024, the company annually conducts over 70 yield trials, manages 200 acres of alfalfa research, evaluates more than 300,000 plants, and maintains 7,000 test plots. As of June 2024, FGI held over 400 patents and applications related to alfalfa research.
 
 
 In November 2021, FGI introduced the Leaves Enhance Alfalfa Forage (LEAF) test, a new tool that evaluates alfalfa quality by predicting the percentage of leaves in harvested forage to support growers in managing their alfalfa crops.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 FGI partnered with Monsanto in May 2016 under a USD 210 million agreement that included the acquisition of all of the commercial rights from the partners&rsquo; alfalfa R&amp;D collaboration and a license for intellectual property relating to alfalfa traits and technology from Monsanto. 
 
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 PLANTeDIT is a biotech company that develops agricultural solutions by using advanced genome editing tools, specifically CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), to create sustainable food products. One of PLANTeDIT's key projects is the development of non-transgenic high-oleic soybeans, which are created by mutating the FAD2 gene in soybeans, resulting in increased oleic oil content.&nbsp;
 
 
 High oleic oils are valued in the food industry for their stability and shelf life, making them a suitable replacement for hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats. PLANTeDIT's high oleic soybean oil has potential applications in various food products, including packaged baked goods, cereal coatings, crackers, dried fruits, and non-dairy creamers.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In October 2017, PLANTeDIT partnered with biotech company ToolGen, Inc., to receive access to ToolGen's CRISPR platform and licenses for other gene-editing tools for the company's R&amp;D in crop improvement areas such as resilience to harsh climates, increased nutrition, and higher yield.
 
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PLANTeDIT

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 Amfora is an agricultural biotech company that uses CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to make plant-based alternatives for animal protein and increase the protein content of staple food crops. The company also uses DNA markers, phenotyping tools such as single-seed near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), and AI tools for advanced crop breeding methodologies to enhance crop genes affecting the protein, oil, and yield content in feed crops.
 
 
 Amfora is developing a family of feed and food crops, the latter of which includes soybeans wheat, and rice, and provides the suppliers of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives with their primary ingredients. The company is also involved in aquaculture feed with the development of a low-cost plant-based protein for farmed seafood.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s patented CRISPR technology leverages gene editing to control the balance between protein and carbohydrates, thereby increasing protein in all crops. The CRISPR technology also lowers the glycemic index and starch, optimizes the amino acid profile, and enhances micronutrients in its food crops.
 
 
 In May 2024, Amfora announced it received approval from the US Department of Agriculture&rsquo;s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for its soybean, with expected commercialization by 2027.
 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 Amfora partnered with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in April 2017 and Corteva Agriscience in April 2019 to receive licenses from the two partners to develop oil and protein content in food crops.
 
 
 In March 2021, it partnered with Plastomics to use its trait delivery technology to introduce Amfora&rsquo;s gene-editing constructs into soybean germplasm. The company partnered with McClintock in July 2023 to combine its phenotyping tools with McClintock&rsquo;s AI and machine learning breeding solutions to accelerate efforts of increasing soybean productivity.
 
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Amfora

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 BioHeuris is an Argentine biotech company that combines synthetic biology with CRISPR gene editing to develop hybrid herbicide-resistant crops to reduce the use of herbicides increasing sustainability and reducing development costs and time to market.&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris has two technology platforms&mdash;Heurik and Swap. Heurik is a high-throughput platform that uses directed evolution and designs of herbicide targets to identify mutations that allow herbicide resistance. Heurik can select gene variants and compare their microorganisms' efficiency and anticipate their effect on crops. Swap is a non-genetically modified organism (non-GMO) platform that combines tissue culture with gene editing techniques to precisely introduce changes and confer herbicide resistance in crops.&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris&rsquo; variety of crop developments with partners include soybean, sorghum, rice, cotton, alfalfa, peanut, maize, and sunflower. The company is developing high-yielding resilient crop varieties for soybean, cotton, and alfalfa. For the rest of the crops, BioHeuris is focusing on developing herbicide and climate-resistant hybrid varieties.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris partnered with Benson Hill in May 2018 and Gensus in May 2021 to apply the company&rsquo;s gene editing technology in developing herbicide-tolerant crops for soybeans, sorghum, and wheat for the former and cotton for the latter. It also partnered with Grupo Don Mario (GDM) in June 2021 for the development of high-yielding soybean varieties using gene editing.&nbsp;
 
 
 In February 2022, BioHeuris partnered with AgIdea to develop a single platform, the Agile Breeding platform, providing genome editing, breeding services, and double haploid tools to seed companies. 
 
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BioHeuris

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 UK-based Tropic Biosciences (Tropic) develops genetic innovation for tropical crops to increase crop yield and sustainability. Tropic uses pioneering technologies, including CRISPR gene editing, to increase crop disease and climate resistance, reduce supply chain waste, and reduce dependence on pesticides.&nbsp;
 
 
 Tropic&rsquo;s in-house gene editing platform, Gene Editing-induced Gene Silencing (GEiGS), combines gene editing precision with gene silencing (RNAi) and innovates vast gene editing possibilities in crops to improve their natural traits.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s tropical crops offered are varieties of bananas, rice, and coffee. The bananas are developed with gene editing to be resistant to the Panama and Black Sigatoka diseases, have an extended shelf life, and reduce food waste and CO2 emissions by over 25%. Using gene silencing, Tropic makes its coffee low in caffeine and increases solubility with gene editing. The company uses gene editing for rice to make them high-yielding and disease-resistant.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 To use its GEiGS platform for developing crop traits, crop varieties and improving livestock protein feed, Tropic Biosciences partnered with Baden Aniline and Soda Factory (BASF) in July 2020, Genus in October 2020, British Sugar in March 2023, and Corteva Agriscience in October 2023.
 
 
 Tropic Biosciences received a license of access for Pairwise&rsquo;s base editing technologies in February 2022 to accelerate breeding innovation in coffee and banana crops for the former.
 
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Tropic Biosciences

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 Meiogenix is a French agriculture biotech company that partakes in chromosome editing to develop new crops. The varieties of crops, using meiotic recombination, expand the biodiversity available to farmers, which is claimed to overcome climate change and food insecurity challenges. The company&rsquo;s SpiX technology targets homologous recombination in plant genomes, which allows the re-assembly of crop traits during the breeding process. The recombination process is claimed to reduce lengthy breeding cycles from 6&ndash;13 years to 3&ndash;7 years and allows the development of entirely new complex traits.
 
 
 In 2021, Meiogenix was developing three applications: the transfer of gene edits or transgenes into a large number of commercial germplasm; the isolation of useful crop traits from low agronomic performance of wild varieties; and the generation of complex crop traits, such as flavor, drought tolerance, nitrogen, or water use. As of 2021, the company&rsquo;s product focus was on corn, tomato, rice, and soybean, with further plans to develop crop varieties in other fruits and vegetables.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 The company partnered with the French Centre de coop&eacute;ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le D&eacute;veloppement (CIRAD) in February 2011 to research the impact of Meiogenix&rsquo;s SpiX technology on rice genomes.
 
 
 It partnered with Bayer in April 2016, providing Meiogenix&rsquo;s SpiX license for use in crop development. In February 2020, Meiogenix partnered with Bayer again to collaboratively improve its recombination technology.
 
 
 Meiogenix also partnered with Lesaffre in June 2016 to use the former&rsquo;s recombination technology to develop improved industrial yeast strains for Lesaffre&rsquo;s yeast manufacturing. 
 
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Meiogenix

Companies that develop or use biological, physical and chemical agents and techniques to provide protection and improve the quality of a seed. This includes the sale of seed coating, or seed enhancement products as methods to treat seeds.

Companies that redesign large clusters of genes and gene parts rather than modifying or engineering a single gene for improving the traits of a plant.

Companies that utilize genetic engineering tools and technologies to use existing and naturally present gene variants in a plant and the natural process of breeding such as inbreeding, and linebreeding to develop better traits for plants.

Companies that use transgenesis processes like tissue culturing to develop transgenic plants or seeds by inserting new genes into them from other plants or in certain instances other organisms like bacteria or even animals.

Companies that offer techniques such as epigenetics, RNA interference (RNAi) to temporarily block a specific gene that would trigger unwanted effect such as a disease on a plant.

Companies that develop a platform to insert, edit, or delete the DNA of a plant itself using approaches such as CRISPR-Cas 9, TALENs, and Zinc Fingers. These approaches help develop plant genes or seeds with traits such as disease-resistant, enhanced-performance, or improve yield.

Offers customization of genes and traits as required by farmers

Biotech solutions to produce crops that are sustainable and offer better traits

Uses AI/machine learning to facilitate their platform/biotech processes like gene editing

Forage Genetics International

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