Dive Brief:
- The produce industry and public health interest groups are awaiting an FDA decision about whether it will approve GMO potatoes, which the USDA approved in November.
- Through gene silencing, researchers can remove certain genes that may slow or prevent potatoes from browning and bruising easily, which can cost farmers a significant amount of products and profits.
- Proponents say GMO potatoes may actually lower the risk of cancer, while opponents say that not enough is known and the genetic modification process could risk public safety.
Dive Insight:
The USDA may grant GMO potatoes a non-regulatory status, or in other words, like other GMO foods, they wouldn't have to be labeled as GMO. This means consumers could unknowingly purchase GMO potatoes.
The Center for Food Safety is particularly worried, leading Doug Gurian-Sherman, the director of sustainable agriculture and senior scientist at CFS, to say, "We simply don’t know enough about RNA interference (RNAi) technology to determine whether GE crops developed with it are safe for people and the environment. If this is an attempt to give crop biotechnology a more benign face, all it has really done is expose the inadequacies of the US regulation of GE crops."