The EPA will require evidence that introduced traits don’t increase health risks before exempting genetically modified plants from regulation.
When the CRISPR gene editor landed in U.S. plant science labs a decade ago, allowing researchers to tweak a crop’s own DNA instead of pasting in foreign genes, hopes rose that it would pave the way for looser regulation of genetically modified crops. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave plant scientists much of their wish, exempting certain gene-edited changes to plants. But the Environmental Protection Agency is taking a tougher stance.
The move clarifies the regulatory requirements for industry and provides valuable oversight, says Jennifer Kuzma of North Carolina State University, an expert on biotechnology and public policy. But an industry group says the new rule will stifle innovation. For more than 20 years, all three bodies have reviewed crops engineered to contain DNA from other species, an appraisal process that can take years and cost industry millions of dollars in testing. The extent of agency oversight has been unclear for gene-edited crops, in which DNA is modified but not moved between species.. For example, researchers won’t need to ask for agency approval if they give a crop a trait that already exists naturally in a sexually compatible plant.
The agency says regulatory review will still be faster and cheaper for gene-edited crops compared with transgenic plants. But the American Seed Trade Association worries that researchers who use conventional breeding—and have not previously needed to ask EPA for a regulatory review—will be dissuaded from adopting gene editing.
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