Gene edited crops to be given the go ahead by Government

I thought Jim Al-Khalili was a physicist. He was head of faculty when my nephew was at uni studying astronomy.

Gene editing is taking the normal changes that have been made to animals by selective breeding over centuries and making it happen faster by doing part of the work in a laboratory. Although I am very wary of genetic engineering. I am less concerned about gene editing.

Those supporting genetic engineering always bring out this argument about feeding the world. The world is already growing more than enough food crops to give everyone an adequate diet. Most famines are the result of political action that makes it impossible for people to access food because of wars and insurrections. Those millions undernourished are there because they are too poor to buy food. No one is starving because there is not enough food in the world to feed them.

One third of all food crops go to waste.mainly in less developed countries because of deficiencies in transport and storage that mean that the food has deteriorated too much to be saleable by the time it reaches markets. In more developed countries, there is immense waste, at farm level where supermarkets reject crops because they do not reach high enough standards of cosmetic appearance, more is wasted as supermarkets keep shelves overstocked and put short use by dates on fresh products and then there is waste in the home.

Population growth is slowing down and will peak about 2070. Outside Africa birthrates the majority of countries have birthrates around replacement rate and more and more countries have birth rates below replacement rate.

We do not need genetically engineered food, only the manufacturers of insecticides and weedkillers need them.

glammagran

I thought Jim Al-Khalili was a physicist. He was head of faculty when my nephew was at uni studying astronomy.

Yes, he is a theoretical physicist. He was presenting a talk about his book What's Next - eighteen top scientists exploring what's in store for the human race including chapters on genomics and genetic engineering. My post was in response to growstuff's about cystic fibrosis. His talk touched on the work Jennifer Doudna is doing in gene editing in relation to diseases including sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and HIV.

Jim's chapter in the book is about teleportation and time travel.

Just wanted to explain ... now back to food.

M0nica, gene editing I think you'll find, is actually just one form of genetic engineering.

It is, but with gene editing, the genes being used are all from the species, whose genome is being manipulated, which is exactly what is being done when animals and plants are selectively bred.

Genetic engineering involves transferring genes from one species to another. I listened to an interview with several scientists on R4 and they were very clear about the difference between the two.

No, M0nica, you said:
Genetic engineering involves transferring genes from one species to another.

But it doesn't have to. It can be same-species. I assume you mean you are happy with this particular form of genetic engineering? Presumably because it is a same-species form?

Yes I am

www.ft.com/content/9a4c3224-4a01-4535-9aa4-a5e2fc6fb0a1

This is interesting.

Sorry, paywall.

Early

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hear Jim Al-Khalili lecture. He mentioned the names Jennifer Doudna and Ray Kurzwil as pioneers in gene technology in connection with tackling chronic health conditions:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Doudna

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil

The links on these pages will lead you to articles and papers about their work.

Jim's book What's Next includes a section called The Future of Us: Medicine, genetics and transhumanism with papers by Adam Kucharski, Aarathi Prasda, Adam Rutherford and Mark Walker .. for anyone who wants to do some reading around the subject.

Thanks Early.

MOnica Developing crops resistant to weedkillers isn't the only form of genetic engineering.

Crops could be developed which are resistant to various viruses, some of which can wipe out a whole species. In fact, this already happens through selective breeding, but it takes much longer. Gene editing could identify in lab conditions the gene(s) which need to be removed and the process could be completed more quickly.

Another positive idea is producing crops which return nitrogen to the soil, as beans do, which would mean that less fertiliser would need to be used.

My concerns are crops bred, by cross species gene transfer to be resistant to the specific weedkillers manufactured by agrochemical companies that both patent the seed and sell the agro chemical involved.

We have been selectively breeding plants and animals to produce breeds that have a variety of different attributes, from size, configuration to resistance to disease for thousands of years. I have no problem with genetic techniques being used to accelerate that type of change.

It is no different in principle, if not in practice to the way various modern techniques were used to accelerate the development of vaccines against COVID.

I still have real concerns about techniques that move genes across species and the necessary changes made to species to make that possible.

As I keep reminding people, I don't believe it's just crops.
I believe it's animals too.

That is why I speak of species, plus (above) I refer to crops and animals.

Sorry M0nica that shouldn't have looked like I was talking to you - had just been reading Growstuff and of course the thread title is about crops.

It'll be 3D printed food next. Crikey! What am I saying, that's already happening.