In the New York Times, while searching for my research topic I came across an article by Kenneth Chang that talks about genetically modified foods. Instead of foods being genetically modified, many crops that are going towards the markets have been gene-edited instead with the use of Crispr. In this method, genes from other organisms are not added into the plants.
A company called Cellectis, that also develops gene-edited crops, hosted a dinner party where the guests were served gene-edited soybeans and potatoes. I found it interesting that some of the guests were not familiar with what gene-editing is, but before I read this article I did not have any knowledge of what it was either. In comparison to GMOs, gene-editing techniques would tend to be more acceptable towards the consumers.
GMOs have inserted genes that come from unrelated species that contain bacteria or viruses that can burrow into a cell. In the process gene-editing soybeans, only two genes were turned off. Potatoes have also been edited so they may remain fresh for a longer period of time. Companies also in the future hope that through gene-editing, soybeans could be used in cooking oil for commercial and industrial use. This process in my opinion is way more efficient and safer than genetically modifying foods. Not only are plants using this new procedure, but so are animals. An example of gene-editing in an animal is creating cattle without any horns.
Gene-editing may be step towards the future of foods. Anyone have any thoughts about it? Feel free to share! Here is the link to article below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/science/genetically-edited-foods-crispr.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FGenetically%20Modified%20Food&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0
GMO foods are something that I do not feel entirely safe when eating them. I always have this weird feeling that there are more things changed than what they say.
ReplyDelete