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In a big win for the biotech industry, the US Department of Agriculture says it won’t regulate plants whose genomes have been altered using gene-editing technology.
The official statement quotes the following:
Under its biotechnology regulations, USDA does not regulate or have any plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests. This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to produce new plant varieties that are indistinguishable from those developed through traditional breeding methods. The newest of these methods, such as genome editing, expand traditional plant breeding tools because they can introduce new plant traits more quickly and precisely, potentially saving years or even decades in bringing needed new varieties to farmers.
"With this approach, USDA seeks to allow innovation when there is no risk present," said Secretary Perdue. "At the same time, I want to be clear to consumers that we will not be stepping away from our regulatory responsibilities. While these crops do not require regulatory oversight, we do have an important role to play in protecting plant health by evaluating products developed using modern biotechnology. This is a role USDA has played for more than 30 years, and one I will continue to take very seriously, as we work to modernize our technology-focused regulations."
"Plant breeding innovation holds enormous promise for helping protect crops against drought and diseases while increasing nutritional value and eliminating allergens," Perdue said. "Using this science, farmers can continue to meet consumer expectations for healthful, affordable food produced in a manner that consumes fewer natural resources. This new innovation will help farmers do what we aspire to do at USDA: do right and feed everyone."
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610723/crispr-plants-wont-be-regulated/
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 01 2018, @01:53PM (1 child)
As I understand it, this is a subset of genetic modifications. This only applies to situations where the gene is either already naturally occuring in some strain of the species or where it could be introduced by crossing it with a similar species. Results that you could normally get via traditional methods albeit with a lot more effort.
This is probably the right decision, although it does make me a bit nervous that we're going to trust that the people using these tools know what they're doing and are careful enough to just make changes that they tell somebody about. We've heard the same safety dance about AI cars and they turned out to be nowhere near as safe as advertised because one of the companies was cutting a ton of short cuts.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 01 2018, @08:27PM
As I understand it, CRISPER techniques can only work on genes present in the population. They can accentuate or suppress individual genes, even ones that have been long dormant.
Adding a gene not currently present would require cross-breeding, but that is usually only possible in closely related species.
Full on GMO allows a lot more risky monkey business.
https://www.crops.org/about-crop-science/crop-breeding [crops.org]
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