Center for Diversified Farming Systems (CDFS) Fellow Maywa Montenegro de Wit was recently interviewed for a Civil Eats article that examines the potential impacts of large agricultural conglomerates utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. This technology allows scientists to add, remove, or alter parts of the DNA sequence with precision, and—unlike classical genetic engineering—does not require the introduction of genetic material from other organisms. Although CRISPR technology does not need the transgenic addition of foreign DNA, it is absolutely capable of carrying out that process, according to Maywa. In theory, wheat, tomatoes, pigs, bananas—any agricultural organism, really—could be engineered to include gene sequences from a range of donors, from fish to fungi. Yet it’s also important for people to understand that “you can create major changes in a plant’s functioning without introducing anything foreign,” she explains. In crops and animals, “gene knockouts” can eliminate genes that affect food quality and confer susceptibility to crop diseases, for example. It’s key, she underscores, not to confuse the size of the edit with the size of the impact.
Read the full Civil Eats article here.
Center for Diversified Farming Systems (CDFS) Fellow Maywa Montenegro de Wit was recently interviewed for a Civil Eats article that examines the potential impacts of large agricultural conglomerates utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. This technology allows scientists to add, remove, or alter parts of the DNA sequence with precision, and—unlike classical genetic engineering—does not require the introduction of genetic material from other organisms. Although CRISPR technology does not need the transgenic addition of foreign DNA, it is absolutely capable of carrying out that process, according to Maywa. In theory, wheat, tomatoes, pigs, bananas—any agricultural organism, really—could be engineered to include gene sequences from a range of donors, from fish to fungi. Yet it’s also important for people to understand that “you can create major changes in a plant’s functioning without introducing anything foreign,” she explains. In crops and animals, “gene knockouts” can eliminate genes that affect food quality and confer susceptibility to crop diseases, for example. It’s key, she underscores, not to confuse the size of the edit with the size of the impact.
