Seed Giants See Fresh Start in Gene-Editing
October 10 2017 - 2:24PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob Bunge
NEW YORK -- The agriculture industry is betting that new
technology for editing the genes of plants will yield enhanced
crops -- and potentially reset a long-running debate over
genetically engineered seeds.
Seed developers including Monsanto Co. and DowDuPont Inc. have
invested in gene-editing technology, which enables scientists to
make precise changes to plants' existing DNA. Executives say
they're also strategizing on how to introduce it to consumers
without arousing the same fears and suspicion that followed the
development of earlier biotech crops, which involved adding genes
from other species.
"There's a big piece of this that is about explaining the
benefits," said Hugh Grant, Monsanto's chief executive, speaking at
the WSJ Global Food Forum in New York Tuesday.
Monsanto and other agricultural companies for years have been
campaigning in defense of biotech crops, which the St. Louis
company helped to pioneer and launch to farmers in 1996. Those
genetically modified crops have come to dominate U.S. corn, soybean
and cotton fields over the past two decades, and Mr. Grant said
that early worries about potential health effects hadn't come to
pass.
But consumers' reservations over genetically modified organisms,
or GMOs, have lingered amid questions over their environmental
impact and their reliance on synthetic pesticides, helping nurture
a rapidly growing market for foods made without genetically
engineered crops.
The Non-GMO Project, which verifies food products' non-GMO
status, estimated annual sales of such products at $19.2
billion.
James Collins, who heads DowDuPont's agricultural division, said
that gene editing is different because the technology can be used
to make edits within a plant's existing genetic code, without
adding any outside genes.
For that reason, he said, gene-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9
and TALEN resemble the centuries-old process of breeding together
different strains of plants to produce an improved version.
Persuading consumers to support gene-edited crops will require
engaging them "at a very local level," Mr. Collins said. The
agriculture industry, he said, must communicate to people how a
variety of corn, with its DNA edited to better resist drought, can
help to feed a global population projected to rise to nearly 10
billion by 2050, for instance.
"You need context," said Monsanto's Mr. Grant. Today, he said,
"people are further and further away from the field, and further
away from how food is produced."
At DowDuPont, researchers have been developing a gene-edited
version of waxy corn, used in industrial products like adhesives,
and Mr. Collins said there is potential to create soybeans that
produce a healthier vegetable oil when crushed and processed.
Monsanto has struck a series of licensing deals to harness
various forms of gene-editing technology, and is looking at using
it across a range of crops.
Some smaller firms, including Calyxt Inc. and Cibus, are using
gene editing to develop new varieties of reduced-gluten wheat and
herbicide-resistant canola.
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 10, 2017 14:09 ET (18:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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