Gene editing technology is not new, and it actually
evolved in nature. Scientists have adapted this natural
process to use with plants, leading to the first gene
editing tools for plant breeding over two decades ago.
The popular clustered regularly interspaced short
palindromic repeats (CRISPR) tool has been around for
almost a decade and subject to extensive research.
Many scientists around the world have demonstrated
that the use of genome editing tools is as safe as the
methods we have used for thousands of years in
conventional breeding.
Health Canada recently supported the safety of this breeding tool in their recent consultation document where they said, “Through a review of the current scientific knowledge regarding the use of gene editing technologies to develop new plant varieties, Health Canada concludes that the use of gene editing technologies does not present any unique safety concerns compared to other methods of plant breeding.”