Canada and the United States joined with 11 other nations to embrace modern technologies for agriculture, including CRISPr gene editing.
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Vietnam are the others who issued a joint statement during recent World Trade Organization meetings.
Ah, but none of them said how they intend to regulate the technology. Already opponents are wailing and gnashing their teeth just as they have done with GMOs.
“Agricultural innovation has played an essential role in increasing yields and productivity in support of growing, prosperous civilizations,” the statement said.
“Innovations in precision biotechnology, such as gene editing, have brought the promise of major improvements in terms of the ease and precision of introducing desirable traits into agricultural organisms, as compared to other breeding methods.”
Among recent research announcements is Semex Canada’s investment to knock out the gene that prompts cattle to grow horns, pork researchers to silence the gene that leads to male maturity (eliminating the need for castration) and two enzyme-producing genes, one that is needed for PRRS to infect pigs, the other that’s needed for TGE to infect pigs.
