You've all heard about GMOs
and the controversy surrounding them.
Well, now they're introducing gene edited foods.
Have a look.
Do you wish you could fry food in an oil
without trans fats?
Do you dream of wheat without gluten?
Or mushrooms that won't go brown in your fridge?
Scientists are working to make these food
dreams a reality with the help of gene editing.
In fact, trans fat free oils are already in the
kitchen of mid-west restaurant and making headlines.
With a snip here or there to a plant's DNA
traits can be changed.
Some are calling gene edited crops, or GECs,
the next food revolution.
Unlike genetically modified organisms, or GMOs,
GECs do not introduce foreign DNA,
they simply alter the DNA that exists.
US Federal Regulators say GECs don't need the
strict regulation and years of testing required
for GMOs, but the European Union ruled otherwise
and is regulating these crops.
Are GECs the food of the future or
the next food to avoid?
Now, here is the deal.
I don't know about you all, I'm all for progress,
but I always worry when there's absolutely
no oversight of this.
Yeah. So I think that's the nail on the head.
Is that as GMOs have gotten a lot more recognition
they are being regulated.
But with the gene editing, as of now, they don't
necessarily meet those same regulatory standards.
They're allowed to kind of do this in
a completely new, wild west, unregulated space.
And so the idea is that it may help confer
some benefits, like, in this case, they're saying
it might have more shelf life, that soy bean oil
may less trans fats.
There are other different crops they're using this
on too with gene editing.
Like, for example, rice and canola.
They're to create pollution resistant
crops and herbicide resistant crops.
Mushrooms that don't brown.
Yeah. So there may be some benefit, but I think
any time you have something like this where you're
altering the genes of something we're going
to consume, and nobody's regulating this and
nobody has really looked at the safety or
how that plays out in our long time health,
it could be very problematic down the line.
And the challenge is regulation, because
since it is the wild west, I'm not even sure
how you would regulate something like this.
And the progress we've made in the 11 years
The Doctors, this show, has been in existence,
when it comes to sequencing DNA, adjusting,
modifying, it's quite remarkable.
And this is just the beginning of this type of story.
Where, I will say, I think this shows a
lot of promise is the earth.
There is a finite amount of space and there are
a lot of human beings inhabiting the earth.
And I do think that we need to be creative,
making sure that there is a large enough food supply
to feed everyone in this word because, look,
when it comes to humans our first need is food
and shelter, right.
And so I think if there is a way to use gene editing
in a safe way, in a regulated way, to make sure that
everyone has enough food to eat, then I'm all for it.
For the time being, the way to avoid this and, again,
this is just the brink, is organic food, they say,
would not be allowed to contain these
gene edited elements.
Correct.
And I don't... the truth is, do we really know?
When I go to a restaurant, do I really know if--
We don't.
Something's been modified or edited?
Not really.
You don't.
We just hope.
I think any time we introduce something new into
society we kind of have this push back and we have
this initial kind of, "Oh, what is it?"
But that's why you do the research and you make
sure it's safe.
We may look at this segment in 20 years and say,
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I was eating stuff
"that wasn't gene edited".
You know, "That wasn't safe".
(laughter)
But we're not there yet so we have to do the
research so that we know it's safe and it
needs to be regulated.
I hope we never get to a place where I'm eating
a tomato that's gene edited and I say, "I can't believe
"I used to eat real tomatoes".
Yeah (laughs).
Right. You never know.
I used to eat organic tomatoes! Yeah.
