A Speed Bump for Genetically Engineered Plants

Genetically engineering plants just got a little harder.

California girls judges, they’re unforgettable: A federal judge in Cali just vacated the USDA’s 2020 rule exempting genetically engineered plants from regulation. 

Translation: This will likely delay the “approval of crops engineered with traits to resist herbicides.” 

Rewind: The reversal unwinds work the Trump administration completed to streamline the review process for biotechnology products and speed up innovation in agriculture.  

GM crops will be regulated if they’re classified as “noxious weeds.” This classification is issued based on the traits from plants’ non-genetically modified counterparts. 

The loophole: GE plants can skip the review if conventional breeding was used to produce the edited traits.

There have been at least 99 genetically engineered exempted plants, but according to the court, were introduced too quickly and many times moved without a permit. The court said these exemptions had nothing to do with the “scientific evidence in the record,” aka recommendations from the National Academies of Science. 

Soundbite: “Previously, nearly all GE plants went through agency approval before experimental planting and again before any commercial use.” — The Center for Food Safety

What’s next? The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is figuring it out. In the meantime, approval of GE crops will follow the more stringent, pre-2020 rules.