January 2011: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published the 21st issue of its Biotechnology Update Newsletter, covering a broad range of activities, publications and events in all fields of biotechnology and biotechnology regulation, including environment and agriculture, health and industrial biotechnology.

On environmental issues, activities include: a policy toolkit on biotechnology for greener growth being developed in the context of the OECD Green Growth Strategy; a research programme on bioenergy; and case studies on the role of the private sector in developing crops that are adapted to climate change. The newsletter also describes the activities of: the Working Group on Harmonization of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology, which deals with the environmental risk and safety assessment of transgenic plants and other organisms; the task force for the safety of novel foods and feeds; the task force on industrial biotechnology, which has published several reports on industrial biotechnology for greener growth and adaptation to climate change; and the Working Party on Biotechnology, which has convened a symposium on the challenges and opportunities of synthetic biology.

Biosecurity issues, such as the threat of bioterrorism and the need for security measures for the handling storage and transfer of dangerous biological material, are addressed by the OECD Committee Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy, which has developed a set of best practice guidelines on biosecurity for biological resource centers. Activities under the Programme on Co-operative Research on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Research Systems include work on: the role of forest biodiversity in the sustainable use of forest ecosystem services in agroforestry, fisheries and forestry; partnerships for sustainable water management in agriculture in the context of climate change; vaccination and diagnosis for food safety in agriculture; and emerging topics in fruit and vegetables. The newsletter also contains an updated list of web resources, contacts and future events relating to biotechnology. [The Newsletter]