It’s been likened to using a search-and-replace function while editing a written document. The technology allows scientists to make precise changes to the genome of living organisms and has wide-ranging applications for improving plant food production and quality. Simplot was the first agricultural company to receive such a license. Simplot, a multinational agribusiness company with headquarters in Boise, Idaho, in 2018 acquired gene editing licensing rights in an agreement with Corteva Agriscience and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, developers of a gene-editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9. He said for growers, who can spend $35,000 an acre to plant strawberries and another $35,000 per acre to harvest them, gene-edited strawberries could reduce the risk of a crop failure. Nelson said the goal of the partnership with Simplot is to improve the horticultural performance of strawberries, enhance pest and disease tolerance and resistance. “You’ve got to look at large populations of seedlings on an annual basis to make progress with traditional plant breeding.” “They possess complex genomes that contribute to long and complex breeding cycles,” Nelson said. Steve Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Plant Sciences Inc., said the company over the last 35 years has developed five distinct breeding populations of strawberries that do best in various growing areas and climate types. The company is also using that gene editing technique on potatoes. Now, more than 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 million kilograms) of the potatoes are sold in some 40 states and 4,000 supermarkets and 9,000 restaurants.Ĭole said the company submitted information to the Agriculture Department that determined the gene editing being used on strawberries replicates a natural process and doesn’t need regulatory approval before the strawberries are brought to the market. Food and Drug Administration approved a previous gene-modifying technique on Simplot potatoes. There is no evidence that genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, are unsafe to eat, but changing the genetic code of foods presents an ethical issue for some.
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