genetic modification Archives

Tag: genetic modification

Innovation and Precaution: European Principles and New Ideas

By Liz O'Neill, Sustainable Food Trust

Europe’s precautionary principle is being challenged in the name of innovation. What might at first seem like a battle of words could, however, have profound impacts on the future of food and farming in the UK, across Europe and beyond.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a customizable tool that lets scientists cut and insert small pieces of DNA at precise areas along a DNA strand. The tool is composed of two basic parts: the Cas9 protein, which acts like the wrench, and the specific RNA guides, CRISPRs, which act as the set of different socket heads. These guides direct the Cas9 protein to the correct gene, or area on the DNA strand, that controls a particular trait. This lets scientists study our genes in a specific, targeted way and in real-time (2015). Author: Ernesto del Aguila III, NHGRI. Via Wikimedia Commons.

A kinder, gentler GMO; what could possibly go wrong?

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

CRISPR, the latest fad in genetic engineering, is touted as both safer and more versatile than previous techniques. But those touting it are making the same demonstrably false assumption that people using the old techniques made.

Crispr is Coming to Agriculture, with Big Implications for Food, Farmers, Consumers, and Nature

By Maywa Montenegro, Ensia

Very few technologies truly merit the epithet “game changer” — but a new genetic engineering tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 is one of them.

Classical Cotton Breeding

By Rebecca Burgess, Fibershed

Enhancing nature’s time-tested processes or Engineering… the difference between this phrase and word is a clear line in the sand that divides many millennia of human efforts to breed plants and animals, and the contemporary field of genetic modification.