- A few weeks ago, Stefan Jansson, a Swedish plant biologist, sat down to a plate of pasta with cabbage harvested from his garden. This cabbage was like none any human had eaten before; its DNA had been edited via a much-hyped new gene-editing technique called CRISPR. Jansson’s meal was the first time anyone anywhere had professed to eating CRISPR-modified food—an entirely new category of GMOs.
But far from being some bizarre “frankenfood,” the cabbage looked almost exactly the same as unedited cabbage. Scientists had deleted only a single gene, which made it grow a little slower.
What might be confusing though is that Jansson’s cabbage, Brassica oleracea, did not look like or taste like cabbage—and it had not looked liked or tasted like cabbage even before scientists took CRISPR to its DNA. “It tastes like broccoli,” says Jansson, “and the leaves look like broccoli’s.” And that’s because humans have been breeding the species B. oleracea for centuries, and this single species now comprises dozens of varieties more commonly known as kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, collard greens, savoy cabbage, etc. They all descend from wild cabbage, and they technically all belong to one species. The exact variety Jansson grew is not farmed, so he called it “cabbage” out of convenience.
[edited out content] Too much of it can make humans sick, and his cabbage was, remember, not originally bred for cultivation. His stomach didn’t feel great after, Jansson confessed— “as if I had spicy food at an Indian restaurant.” But CRISPR, he suggested, could help with that. I'm not seeing the point. He removed a gene, calling that process CRISPR instead of the dreaded GMO. It sounds genetically modified. It's modifying a gene. It sounds like he's getting around the FDA classification at the moment because he's not adding any DNA? The environmentalists are already in a rage about it. Scientists aren't backing it. He got sick over his own creation. The commercial prospects for this don't look good.In Sweden, Jansson is no stranger to unease over genetic engineering. His colleagues recently returned from a conference where activists flung cow dung and eggs at scientists. The CRISPR-edited cabbage he grew he actually got from researchers outside Sweden, who did not want their names or even their country revealed, fearing backlash from environmental activists.
stop freaking out. Jesus. It's just a gene in a vegetable. Oh no, we're all going to die because the genes are edited. Did you know that everything you eat affects your DNA? Everything you consume modifies your body in some way. Also, don't you remember that we all die within 80 to 120 years of our lifespan? So who cares. Maybe some day they'll be able to make broccoli taste like cotton candy for people like you.
Haha. Welcome to Hubski as of an hour ago. Did you join just to tell me not to freak out? My comment wasn't personal to me. I'm not "freaking out". I don't have personal feelings about GMO either way. I just summarized the article. The only part I added was that commercial prospects don't look good based on how it's getting received. This new process will likely have a PR problem to become commercially viable.