EPA Rule on Gene-edited Plants
In a final rule published on May 31 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it will exempt gene-edited plants from an in-dept review process if the change could have been achieved with conventional breeding. But EPA will still require developers to submit data showing that plants that have been gene edited to resist pests will not harm other components of the plant’s ecosystem. In an article published by Science, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) expressed concerns that researchers who use conventional breeding – and have not previously needed to ask EPA for a regulatory review – will be dissuaded from adopting gene editing. Here is the text of the new rule.