— WARF is spotlighting an altered form of soybean plant as a top licensing prospect, with potential applications in food dye production as an alternative to more harmful synthetic chemicals.
The soybean plant was engineered to produce large amounts of a natural red pigment called betalain in hopes of replacing synthetic dyes like Red Dye No. 3, which have come under fire by the FDA due to possible health concerns.
It was created by a group of scientists including UW-Madison Prof. Hiroshi Maeda, graduate student Soyoung Jung and Ray Collier, a department manager within the university’s Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center.
While natural alternatives already exist, such as beet juice extract, Maeda says it can be as much as 10 times more expensive than the synthetic options.
“Our lab has been interested in plant chemical pathways or plant metabolism, when we heard about the issues or the challenges of producing natural color in an affordable and scalable manner, we thought we could appy our expertise to help address this societal problem,” he said in remarks provided by WARF.
To create the modified plant, the scientists introduced a betalain-producing chemical pathway into the soybeans, while also giving the plants more of the “building blocks” needed to create the pigment. They explored other options but found the soybean plants worked best due to being more tolerant to the induced change.
Collier says “we haven’t hit the limit” for increasing this pigment production within soybean plants.
“The potential to really ramp this up in [soybeans], it’s real … that’s why Jung’s work is so important, because to make that a sustainable increase that doesn’t, you know, negatively impact the health of the plant or the ability of the seeds to germinate, those are critically important for producing a commercial product,” he said.
In addition to the potential use in making better food dyes, the altered soybean plants also include other chemicals with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, Jung said. They produce a compound called L-DOPA that’s used in brain health supplements, an overview from WARF notes.
“In our soybean, because we are producing these chemicals in all of those leaves and seeds and all of those tissues, so they’re pretty abundant everywhere in our soybeans,” she said, adding the team aims to work with industry partners on pilot-scale experiments geared toward commercialization.
See more here.
— Utilities lined up against solar developers and landowners in a Senate committee hearing for more than three hours of testimony on a bill expanding community solar development.
Wisconsin’s regulated energy market means that power generation is typically reserved for utilities and electric cooperatives.
SB 559 would allow utility consumers to subscribe to private solar facilities and receive a credit to their electric bill.
Proponents argue the bill would help meet the state’s growing energy needs and place a damper on residents’ rising power bills.
“We need an all-of-the-above approach to energy production here in the state of Wisconsin and this is a step in the right direction,” said Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, who co-sponsored the bill.
Rate adjustments for Alliant Energy, Xcel Energy and Madison Gas and Electric this year will cost some Wisconsin residents a combined $330 million over the next two years. See more in a recent story.
Proponents yesterday said the bill would expand workforce opportunities in the solar industry and offer a financial bulwark for farmers who could lease their land to solar farms.
Speakers from Xcel, Alliant, MGE and We Energies testified against the bill yesterday, with Joel Haubrich of We Energies calling it a “developer-driven subsidy scheme.”
They argued the bill would push solar users’ costs onto other consumers and hamper their own solar development efforts by making private development more attractive to solar companies than bidding on utilities’ own solar projects.
“When a company promises you a discount, someone else has to pay for it,” said Zack Hill, senior public and community affairs manager for Alliant Energy.
The battle lines remained largely the same from two prior attempts to pass a third-party solar bill, in 2021 and 2023.
Sarah Moon of solar developer Fieldworks highlighted changes third-party solar proponents had made to the latest version of the bill to appease utilities, including adding a $20 price floor to consumers’ electric bills to cover utility transmission costs and cap third-party solar capacity at 1.75 gigawatts statewide.
For reference, the old Oak Creek Power Plant could generate 1.14 gigawatts at its peak.
Utility representatives acknowledged those changes but indicated they did not go far enough.
Hill claimed the bill would cost utility consumers who did not subscribe to third-party solar some $8.75 billion over the next 25 years.
Karl Rabago, an energy consultant and former Colorado utility commissioner, called that figure “histrionic” and suggested that consumers would only bear that added cost if utility providers did not share cost-savings on reduced transmission needs.
“The utility position sounds like, ‘let us do it all, and no one gets hurt,’” Rabago quipped.
— Wisconsin has seen rising abortion rates since late 2023, including both in-person and telehealth abortions, a new report shows.
The Society of Family Planning yesterday released its latest #WeCount report, which tracks abortion trends across the country since just before Roe v Wade was overturned, starting in April 2022.
It shows that in Wisconsin, abortions this year have risen to around the same level they were before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, with a total of 700 abortions in June, the latest month covered by the report.
That’s just above the 690 abortions the state had in May 2022, though many more are now being provided through telehealth. While only 20 of the abortions provided in May 2022 in the state were done by telehealth and the rest were in person, 210 abortions in June 2025 were through telehealth and the other 490 were in person.
The state had no in-person abortions between July 2022 and August 2023 and relatively few telehealth abortions during that period, the report shows. Since September 2023, Wisconsin has had an upward trend for abortions being provided.
For the first six months of the year, the average number of monthly abortions for the state was 710, exceeding the average for the same period last year, about 547.
The report also spotlights Illinois, where state law protects abortion access and thousands of Wisconsinites have sought abortions since the national right to abortion was overturned. A separate report from the office of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, says Wisconsin residents made up the greatest share of patients getting care from Planned Parenthood of Illinois following the court’s decision.
Illinois continues to provide more abortion care than it did before then, the #WeCount report shows, with about 7,500 abortions per month over the first half of this year, compared to about 5,500 per month leading up to Roe v Wade being overturned.
See the data.
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— Wisconsin’s climate is generally expected to get warmer and wetter in the decades to come, according to the state climatologist, though projections for less summer rainfall could pose an issue for agriculture.
Steve Vavrus, director of the State Climatology Office at UW-Madison and co-director of the Wisconsin Iniatitive on Climate Change Impacts, discussed these and other trends during yesterday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee.
Vavrus said Wisconsin’s temperature is generally expected to continue getting warmer in decades to come, with more extreme heat and less extreme cold. The picture for precipitation is somewhat more complicated, though winter, spring and fall are all projected to get wetter over that period.
“The newest climate models are projecting that the summers will become dryer by about 10 to 15% across the state, that is kind of a new result … and that has implications for agriculture in particular, also tourism, water resources and so on,” he said.
Ancient ecological changes have shaped the state’s modern-day economy, he noted, pointing to glaciers bringing fertile soil down from Canada before receding thousands of years ago. That created the rich farmland that supports Wisconsin’s agricultural industries, Vavrus explained.
Looking ahead, he warned the effects of climate change could have further impacts on the state economy, as extreme weather events are on the rise.
While the number of billion-dollar weather “disasters” in the United States has been trending upward since the 1980s, the greatest increases were seen in the last decade or so, according to Vavrus. In Wisconsin, extreme weather has been increasing for well over a hundred years, he noted, pointing to a 25% statewide increase since the 1890s.
He referenced the recent flooding in the Milwaukee area that occurred late this summer, stemming from what he called a 1,000-year rainfall event that’s typically only expected once per millennium.
“It is going to go down as a new statewide record for most rainfall in a 24-hour period,” he said. “So we’re putting the final touches on the official notification, but it’s going to be this 14.5-inch bullseye over at Madison High School … at this point, the price tag is $76 million and it will probably climb further.”
Vavrus was referring to Madison University High School, located about 12 miles northwest of downtown Milwaukee.
Watch the video.
— WEDC is providing $110,000 in grant funding for a world championship snowshoe race coming to Brillion later this month with an estimated $1.4 million economic impact.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. yesterday announced it’s giving the Opportunity Attraction Fund grant to event organizers the Ariens Sports & Entertainment Foundation Inc. and the North Country Sports Council.
The Ariens Nordic Center is hosting the World Snowshoe Championships, U.S. Nationals Snowshoe Championships and Open Championships on Dec. 18-21, bringing in about 500 participants and up to 1,000 spectators, the council estimates.
“Wisconsin and Brillion are opening up their arms to the world, and this event will bring wonderful energy and opportunity to the area while inspiring future generations of athletes,” Matthew Dougherty, the council’s executive director, said in a statement.
See the release and find event details here.
— The latest episode of “Talking Trade” features the fourth and final segment of a recent live panel discussion, featuring the conclusion of the conversation and audience questions.
Talking Trade is hosted by E.M Wasylik Associates Managing Director Ken Wasylik and M.E. Dey & Co. President and Managing Director Sandi Siegel.
Watch part 4 here. See coverage from the event, held at the Waukesha County Technical College’s School of Business, here.
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TOPICS
AGRIBUSINESS
– USDA funds growth for Wisconsin dairy plant
CONSTRUCTION
– Restoration project planned for Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on Milwaukee’s south side
ECONOMY
– 19th-century Kewaunee County pier is named a Wisconsin historic place
ENVIRONMENT
– More than 20 Wisconsin counties are under a winter storm warning on Dec. 9 and 10
FOOD & BEVERAGE
– Third Cheba Hut sandwich joint rolling up to Milwaukee area
– For 75 of its 145 years, Elm Tree Bakery was owned by the Pfefferles
MANAGEMENT
– Julie Granger named chief partnerships officer of TEMPO
REAL ESTATE
– Former Four Points hotel near Milwaukee airport sold
REGULATION
– Two of Madison mayor’s housing proposals advance to City Council
RETAIL
– Colectivo Coffee Roasters continues expansion in Chicago market
– How Milwaukee’s grocery scene was shaken up in 2025
TOURISM
– Wisconsin off the beaten path: A diner in the woods, Claire D’Loon and Al Capone’s brother
TRANSPORTATION
– I-794 crash highlights Milwaukee County snow removal challenges on bridges
PRESS RELEASES
See these and other press releases
Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.: World championship snowshoe races coming to Wisconsin
