Agricultural biotechnology international conference, Cork, Ireland

The annual agricultural biotechnology international conference (ABIC) will be held in Cork, Ireland, from 24 to 27 August. The theme of ABIC 2008 is 'agricultural biotechnology for a competitive and sustainable future'.

Experts in agricultural biotechnology research will present their scientific advances and future directions, across 12 parallel and two plenary sessions. Session themes include:
- ag-biotech: the sustainability challenge facing society;
- biofuels and bioenergy biotechnology research;
- marine and algal biotechnology;
- crop breeding, genetics and genomics;
- domestic animal breeding, genomics and biotechnology;
- role of ag-biotech innovation for national and international competitiveness;
- seed, fruit and reproductive plant biotechnology;
- molecular pharming in plants and animals;
- the future of plant genetic engineering;
- ag-biotech regulations, rules and perceptions;
- functional foods, nutrition, nutraceuticals and bioactives;
- agricultural biotechnology and developing countries;
- food and dairy agricultural biotechnology.

At a time when global agricultural production (e.g. of food, feed, fibre and fuel) faces very significant challenges due to rising demand, rising prices and population increases, the ABIC 2008 meeting attempts to provide the details on how agricultural biotechnology research and development (R&D) could help sustainable social and economic development over the coming years.For further information, please visit:
http://www.abic.ca/abic2008/(opens in new window)