As methods and applications for biotechnology in agriculture continue to advance at a rapid pace, regulators work to maintain a balance between safety and potentially rapid progress in food production. Recent clarification from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on oversight of genomic editing intends to facilitate innovation while continuing to monitor the technology for safety concerns.

 

Genomic editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9), have recently emerged as promising tools for quickly introducing desirable traits for use in plant and animal breeding. Genomic editing differs from genetic engineering in that scientists delete, insert or substitute pieces of DNA within a species. Genetic engineering, in contrast, modifies an organism by adding genetic material from a different organism, such as Bt corn, which incorporates a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that produces a protein toxic to Lepidoptera larvae such as corn borers.

 

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