The USDA official overseeing organic agriculture said the sector, which rejects GMO crops along with the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, might benefit from gene-edited varieties. “There is the opportunity to open the discussion,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Greg Ibach, despite the fact that a USDA advisory board decided in 2016 that gene editing should be an “excluded” technology.
Rep. Neal Dunn, from a district in the Florida Panhandle, broached the topic at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. Plant diseases such as downy mildew seem to evolve as quickly as plant breeders can develop resistant varieties, said the Republican, wondering if gene editing might be helpful.
“I think there is the opportunity to open the discussion to consider whether it is appropriate for some of these new technologies that include gene editing to be eligible to be used to enhance organic production and have resistant varieties — drought-resistant, disease-resistant varieties — as well as higher-yielding varieties available,” said Ibach.
Proponents say gene editing is a safe and speedier way to achieve modifications that could be achieved using traditional breeding methods. Classical genetic engineering inserts foreign DNA into a plant. Gene editing tweaks the genes native to a plant.
The Organic Trade Association, a trade group, and the Center for Food Safety, which favors organic and sustainable agriculture, both pointed to the 14-0 vote by the National Organic Standards Board in 2016 determining that gene editing should be barred from organic agriculture.
“In our view, gene editing is a newer form of genetic engineering and thus a prohibited method in organic agriculture,” said the Center. The OTA pointed to its “long-held position that any gene-editing techniques [should] not be allowed in organic production.”
To watch a video of the hearing or to read Ibach’s written statement, click here.