For the first time, a food product created using CRISPR – a promising but controversial gene-editing technique – could be on track to be sold and eaten. And it might be the first of many.
Few scientific issues are more divisive than the regulation and labeling of genetically modified organisms, otherwise known as GMOs. In 2015, a Pew Research survey found that more than half of American adults consider GMOs "generally unsafe." In contrast, 88 percent of scientists surveyed think GMOs are "generally safe." That kind of staggering schism between scientific consensus and public opinion — mixed in with a deep mistrust of Monsanto, the company most publicly associated with the push to grow GMO food crops — makes it seem at times impossible to have a level conversation about the real risks and rewards of the technology.
A new fungus shows just how murky our understanding of the technology – and our policy surrounding it – remains. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that it will not regulate the cultivation and sale of a white-button mushroom created using CRISPR.
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