Could this technology put an end to battles over genetically engineered foods?

In a post alerting us to some very important developments in genetically engineered foods, Tabitha M. Powledge at On Science Blogs wonders whether a technology called CRISPR could ease the concerns of anti-GMO activists.

Powledge takes note of the sequencing of the genome of bread wheat, which turned out to be far more complicated than we might expect–“more-than-usually incestuous” is how she puts it.

And she gives us a short and useful explication of CRISPR, which some are calling a natural process for altering genes. The acronym stands for clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats, which doesn’t exactly clarify things. See Powledge for more on the idea that this will placate the opponents of GMOS–and note that it’s scientists who say so, not activists.

“I’m doubtful,” Powledge writes. “But let’s see.”

-Paul Raeburn