Ag News: GMO Demonization
**The demonization of genetically engineered food has seemingly reached ‘organic’ status.
In a recent agweb.com editorial, Dan Murphy said opposition to GMOs is unique in that avoidance of genetically modified food isn’t being promoted as an eco-positive initiative and nobody’s gotten sick or died from the millions of tons of products made with GM corn and soy.
He adds, of all the issues one would reasonably expect to see leveraged on the basis of factual evidence, GMOs should be at the top of that list.
**On that note, the USDA sent a clear signal Wednesday it will not seek to regulate emerging gene editing technologies that could open a new era of plant development.
Ag Secretary Perdue says USDA does not regulate or have any plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they’re not plant pests or developed using plant pests.
The newest methods, such as genome editing, could save decades in creating needed new varieties.
**An impressive speaker lineup is taking shape for the 22nd World Meat Congress, the world’s premier red meat gathering at the end of May in Dallas.
Sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue will deliver the keynote address on the challenges of feeding a growing world and trade policy initiatives of the Trump administration.
He’ll be followed by Argentine Ag Minister Luis Miguel Etchevehere.