March 28, 2024 8:43 PM

Newly WTO statement reveals Canada’s support for gene editing technology

A newly released statement reveals that 13 countries are in favor of a new technology called gene editing.

/ Published 5 years ago

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Just over a year ago, scientists used a bustling new technology to correct a mutation in human eyebrows. Such a modification is achieved by way of using small strands of RNA to guide an assisted protein to a specific location on an organism’s DNA. Said protein then cuts into the DNA, allowing modification of the nucleotide sequence.

This technology is called gene editing technology, and it has been in the news a great deal over the last few years. In fact, just a few months ago, the technology’s originators, UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna, her French collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, and a Lithuanian researcher received the ever-prestigious and lucrative Kavli Prize. In addition, the aforementioned use of the technology is just one of the many potential applications the technology exhibits, and scientists are hoping to alter plants, animals, and even humans with it.

However, for all the great buzz surrounding the revolutionary new technology, the lion’s share of media coverage on it has focused a great deal on its potential for vastly improving the quality of human life, as well as its potential for harm.

Over the past three years, much debate has been centered on the technology, with leading scientists calling for global deliberation on all the possible effects of gene editing for the future.

Scientists are calling for the deliberation of the effects of gene editing. (Photo by Yakuzakorat via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.)

A new global policy

Scientists didn’t have to wait all that long though, as a recent statement on agricultural applications of precision biotechnology signed by 13 countries includes gene editing, meaning that the government is now in favor of it.

In fact, previously frowned upon in the country, the government of Canada now believes that gene-edited crops can essentially help farmers produce “safe and affordable food, feed, fibers, and energy in the 21st century.”

According to a WTO statement, “Agricultural innovation has played an essential role in increasing yields and productivity in support of growing, prosperous civilizations. Innovations in precision biotechnology, such as gene editing, have brought the promise of major improvements in terms of ease and precision of introducing desirable traits into agricultural organisms, as compared to other breeding methods.”

Of course, Canada is in no way bound by the words in the joint statement, and many are still not in favor of the new technology. Still, its federal government can take a different approach on gene editing as well as new plant breeding methods if it ever chooses to do so.

Touted as the next big thing in plant science for many years now, gene editing allows researchers to delete or insert a specific gene in an organism’s DNA. Whether it will be fully accepted by all countries in the future though remains to be seen.

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