One growing area of research involves applying gene-editing techniques to animals and insects in an agricultural context, to prevent pests and improve productivity and sustainability. Of course, the extent to which this is permissible depends on local legislations; the EU, for example, has notably stricter rules compared to the US.
[Professor of Genetics at the University of California, Riverside Linda Walling’s] team is confident that a field release of their transgenic [crop pests] sharpshooters could be feasible within three or four years, once a series of stringent tests have taken place under controlled conditionsโby which time they believe that regulations will be in place to allow the release.
In the context of wider public discourse around the ethical and safety risks associated with gene-editing animalsโespecially genetically engineering a specific set of genes to spread among a populationโthe team is already working closely with both growers and state and federal regulatory bodies.
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This is a hot-button issue for society, and is threaded with debates along a number of axes: Concerns around the unintended consequences of changing an animal or an ecosystem; the question of โplaying godโ; and simply the sense that this could be the thin end of the wedge. As technology increasingly merges with biology, opening up ever more profound ways to engineer or co-opt the natural world, these issues are going to come increasingly into focus.
