GMO 2.0 is here. Even though more consumers are asking for non-GMO verified foods, businesses need to be aware of changes coming from within the supply chain as gene-editing technologies like CRISPR and TALENs rapidly change the food industry, especially in the United States.

“Agribusiness has a vision of how they want food production to go and that involves large-scale use of these new genomic technologies like CRISPR and synthetic biology,” says Jim Thomas, co-executive director and researcher with the ETC Group, which monitors the impact of emerging technologies and corporate strategies on biodiversity, agriculture and human rights. “It involves digital technology, using drones and robots in agriculture and large amounts of data flowing in and off the farm. This is the next stage of industrialization in the food chain. CRISPR is very much part of that vision.”

This comes against an international backdrop of leaders being awarded for work in genetic editing, including the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry being awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their development of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing.