CRISPR-Altered Plants Are Not Going To Be Regulated (For Now) (fastcompany.com)

Good news for people who like genetically altered tomatoes and other plants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will no longer regulate them. From a report: The USDA not only rolled back Obama-era rules regulating genetically edited plants, but now it claims that plants whose genomes have been altered using gene-editing technology (read: CRISPR) pose "no risk," MIT's Technology Review reports. While CRISPR engineering is still a relatively new science whose full impact is not yet known, the USDA has decided that it is merely an innovative shortcut to the age-old practice of plant breeding.

Comments

CRISPR-ed

[mentil]

I, for one, am looking forward to CRISPR-enhanced lettuce, at my local grocery.
Also, I'm shocked a Republican administration would do any pro-GMO move, even if they frame it as 'less regulation'.

Re:CRISPR-ed

[Anonymous Coward]

Republicans are more likely to support GMO than oppose it. Oh we have our fringe lunatics who think GMO is a government conspiracy to instill mind control or some other BS. But mostly we recognize that GMO increases output with less resources. It's good for business, good for the small farmer as well and it's feeding large parts of the world (Golden Rice).

GMO is helping to feed the world. Why would we not support it.

Meanwhile it's the Democrat loonies who push vegan this, or "Organic" that and who tend to oppose GMO and corporate farming.

Re:CRISPR-ed

[Applehu Akbar]

When we modify species by hybridization, we keep tossing the dice by mating individuals we hope carry the traits we want. Then we cull the offspring and keep repeating the process, generation after generation. All GM does is get us there faster and with less uncertainty.

Re:CRISPR-ed

[vtcodger]

"I, for one, am looking forward to CRISPR-enhanced lettuce, at my local grocery."

Grocery? Heavens no. The CRISPR enhanced lettuce will roll out of the grocery on its own, hitch a ride to your house, pick the lock, let itself in, lock the door behind it, climb into your fridge, discard any overly aged food, tuck itself into the vegetable tray, close the fridge door, and, if necessary, turn out the light in the fridge.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Onion

[invalid_user]

Lettuce in an eggplant,
Avocado!

Re:I like this sentence in the article

[dwillden]

Walking corn plants can be herded to new fields from time to time allowing the moisture and nutrient content of the soil to be scientifically replenished between field occupations without so much being wasted when splashed on the more stationary plants of today where so much evaporates off the leaves and stalks rather than getting into the soil for the roots to drink.

They also reduce the number of combines a Farmer needs, instead of needing five or six to harvest a farm working one field at a time. This will allow one to be set in a stationary position at the end of a harvest funnel, and the Corn is herded from all the fields of the farm into the combine. The combine of course is co-located with the Silo and dumps the harvested corn directly into the Silo eliminating the need for trucks to catch the harvested corn and haul it from the fields to the Silos. It will take some work training dogs to herd corn effectively as the current herding breeds tend to ignore plants looking for cows or sheep to herd.

Seriously you are really missing what an incredible idea walking corn would be.

At least until it learns how to make rudimentary tools and weapons.