Friends of the Earth activist campaigner calls for increased regulation of ‘GMO 2.0’ gene edited food

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Editor’s note: Dana Perls is the senior food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth, you can read GLP’s profile of Friends of the Earth here. The original article contains a number of misconceptions about the Arctic Apple in particular about how to tell when an apple is rotten. You can read about the Artic Apple’s non-browning process here and here.

Researchers are tinkering with nature’s DNA in new and potentially problematic ways and without clear regulatory guidance. They can alter a species by editing or deleting genes, turning genes on or off, or even creating completely new DNA sequences on a computer. Some of these new foods will be marketed as “non-GMO” or “natural” because the definition of GMO has not yet caught up with the pace of new biotechnology developments.

Existing definitions focus on transgenic technologies that take genes from one species and put them into another. But many companies are modifying organisms’ genomes without adding another organisms’s genes using gene-silencing techniques such as RNA interference and gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR.

Now it’s time for the US government to add its voice to the issue. We need more science, assessment, answers, and regulations before we can decide whether these new biotech products should be in our stores — and on our plates. Instead, we are being kept in the dark, with no clue about what foods contain these unlabeled ingredients.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Next-generation genetically modified foods need better regulation

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