Now Serving: Mutated Food

What does gene editing do to food? What does it do to us? Research shows we should be very wary.

New gene editing methods like CRISPR-Cas9, have been touted as the gentler, softer application of biotech to agriculture. Where earlier genetic engineering put spider genes into a tomato, for example, technology like CRISPR is used to go into an organism’s DNA to cut and slice here and there to permanently modify that organism’s DNA. Plants that are produced through gene editing also avoid most of the federal rules put in place to regulate GMO crops, including labeling them as “GMO.” The USDA has already decided it will not regulate CRISPR-edited mushrooms.

A new study suggests that this approach needs to be reconsidered. The researchers found that gene editing can introduce hundreds of unintended mutations into the genome.

The US government needs to wake up and realize that gene editing is not as safe, reliable, or consistent as industry is touting it, and Americans have the right to know if their food was created using this technology. Once again, however, cronyism seems to outweigh the science.

 

from The Alliance for Natural Health http://ift.tt/2s68v0j via Aloe for Health

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