ARTICLE: 2018 Predictions: GMOs 2.0, a turning point

The following is an excerpt of a blog post by Marc Brazeau on the website Food and Farm Discussion Lab about his predictions of what topics will be hot for GMOs in 2018. 

GMOs 2.0: A TURNING POINT

No, I’m not talking about CRISPR and other gene editing techniques. I suspect those will make other people’s lists of what to watch for in 2018, not mine. CRISPR will continue to march forward throughout 2018, but I don’t see any big change in trajectory from 2017, or 2016 or 2015 for that matter. Gene editing will continue to be important, but I don’t foresee much change in the story.

No, what I’m talking about is a new generation of GE foods that have finally been commercialized. These are crops that cut against common anti-biotech tropes and a biotech salmon that breaks new ground and could change the narrative in a fundamental ways.

The first wave of GE crops were the herbicide tolerant and insect resistant commodity crops. Bt corn and cotton, RoundUp Ready corn and soy. Those traits are now in alfalfa, sugar beets, and canola. While the benefits of those traits were immediately obvious to farmers, they are more opaque to consumers. They have left the space open to a critique that holds that biotech in ag has had no benefit for consumers and merely helps farmers, while helping Monsanto and the rest of Big Scary Ag sell more chemicals. Nevermind that Bt crops have led to the shuttering of insecticide factories or that increased sales of RoundUp have meant decreased sales of paraquat, dicamba, 2-4D and other herbicides which used to be more popular, the GMOs allow farmers to “drench their crops in toxic chemicals” narrative was too sexy to sideline.

GMOs 2.0 all cut against that false, but persistent narrative.

Visit the Food and Farm Discussion Lab (FAFDL) to read the entire post.