Dubbed “the next big thing in agriculture,” gene editing of meat animals is making its way from labs, livestock farms and even federal government rights to our dinner tables.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would lead the regulatory process for bringing gene-edited meat to market.
Tracy Forfa, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, linked the agency’s role to the need to “keep our regulatory approach up to date with scientific advances.”
“We recognize that innovation in animal biotechnology offers significant opportunities to improve human and animal health,” she said.
What is gene editing?
Gene editing, also known as CRISPR, allows researchers to modify genes in specific locations in the genome, disabling them or adding genes with desirable traits. Think of scissors, but in this case, enzymes do the work instead. Enzymes allow researchers to precisely insert or delete genes in the DNA of animals and plants to improve their health, productivity, and nutritional benefits.
A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA (genetic material). For example, in humans, nearly every cell in the body contains a complete copy of the genome. The genome contains all the information a person needs to develop.
Not GMOS
Gene editing is distinct from genetic modification and is an entirely different technique in that it involves inserting DNA from an outside species into an organism’s genome.
In the case of genetically modified salmon, for example, these fish (and other genetically modified animals) carry foreign DNA that would never occur in nature unless deliberately inserted by humans.
In contrast, gene editing only works within a species’ DNA. Its goal is to bring about desirable changes that in the past could only be achieved through traditional breeding methods. For centuries, farmers have relied on selective breeding: breeding animals with desirable traits with those that don’t have those traits to improve food production and meat quality. Achieving this goal of course requires a lot of trial and error, and takes a long time (sometimes many generations). That’s why gene editing is often referred to as a “high-tech form of selective breeding.”
Last year, the FDA approved a certain group of gene-edited pigs for inclusion in the human food chain and gave its first approval for pork from gene-edited pigs.
The pigs were a mix of commercial breeds and reflected pigs kept in a standard pig farming operation.
Again, the goal was to develop desirable traits for improved food production.
“Our gene edits did not involve the introduction of foreign DNA, but rather changes that could occur in nature,” said John Autry, a research associate at Washington State University.
He calls gene editing the “cutting edge technology” of our time.
Autry said the team plans to apply for approval for consumption of other meat-producing animals, such as cows, sheep and goats, and predicts that animals produced this way could reach commercial scale within five years. In other words, gene-edited meat could soon be available to consumers.
And no, it won’t be labeled as such, at least not at this time.
“If edible products made from animals with CRISPR-edited DNA require labeling, then all products made through conventional breeding should be required to be labeled, as these genetic combinations are the result of human intervention,” Autry said.
What about food safety??
Autry said as long as standard food safety practices are followed in raising, packaging and preparing meat, food poisoning bacteria will not be present.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which has looked at food safety issues related to gene editing, notes that while approaches may vary, many countries have found ways to include gene-edited foods in existing regulatory categories to address these issues.
In conclusion, a recent FAO report states that “the potential impacts of gene editing on food safety, quality and trade are not expected to differ significantly from those on foods derived from existing breeding techniques.”
Briefly dismissing gene-edited meat animals is not without warning: A report from Friends of the Earth suggests that new genetic engineering techniques such as gene editing are dangerous and could have unintended consequences for humans and the planet.
Moreover, the group says, because gene editing involves “cutting” DNA and then repairing the cut DNA using the cell’s own repair mechanisms, these techniques result in genetically modified crops.
While many scientists and scientific reports maintain that GMOs are safe, controversy swirls around the issue, with some opponents alleging that GMOs are being introduced into the food supply as a way to enrich the agricultural industry or to poison or sedate the public.
Why FDA?
Scientists familiar with the issue say the FDA is the logical agency to lead the regulatory process: They point out that the FDA is mandated to protect human and animal health, while the USDA “doesn’t have the same overriding public health mission,” said Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
In May 2024, the FDA issued guidance that the agency would be primarily responsible for regulating genetically modified animals.
The agency has accelerated its approval process for gene-edited meat in recent years.
In 2022, the agency determined that Axeligen’s beef cattle, which have been genetically modified to have shorter hair and be better able to withstand higher temperatures, pose little to no safety risks.
Washington State University also received FDA approval last year for a German-style sausage made from pigs with gene-edited traits.
“These technologies hold great promise for many applications and benefits to public and animal health, including making animals more resistant to diseases, reducing the transmission of zoonotic diseases, improving animal husbandry and increasing food production and quality,” Tracey Forfa, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in a statement.
“We’re just getting to the ballpark,” AgTech Accelerator CEO John Dombroski told Bloomberg News in an earlier interview. “Gene editing can do a lot for all sectors of agriculture, and the potential is enormous. We’ll be able to tweak foods to deliver incredible health and nutritional benefits.”
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