b'EXTRASMANDATORY LABELING COULD IMPACT SALESeral crops, including apples, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, OF GE PRODUCTS strawberries, peaches, grapes, olives and tomatoes. The flies are known to proliferate by depositing their eggs inside growing Researchers from Penn States College of Agricultural Sciencesfruit. They are notoriously difficult to control since their larvae reveal that labels on products that notify consumers of ingre- consume ripening fruit pulp, limiting the effectiveness of insec-dients from genetically engineered (GE) plants could reduceticide sprays. Some flies have been known to become resistant sales in a new study. to insecticides and many chemicals used in insecticides are now The study examined Vermont sales trend data frombanned because of threats to human health.InfoScan following The National Bioengineered FoodWith CRISPR, UC San Diego scientists avoided the need for Disclosure Standard going into effect. The law is the sole man- harmful radiation and instead use CRISPR editing to specifically datory statewide GE labeling policy implemented in the U.S.,target genes essential for female D. suzukii viability and male according to a release. fertility. As envisioned, pgSIT eggs could be produced at a fac-The team discovered after the law was put into effect,tory and released at sites invaded by pests such as D. suzukii. food sales for products that contained GE ingredients fell 5.9%.Eggs could be deployed directly into areas where the flies are Simultaneously, sales for products without GE ingredients rosecausing damage and only sterile males would hatch after about by 2.5%, and organic product sales increased by 1.7%. two weeks. Since only two genes are knocked out, the males We know that GE products are safe, but many are con- emerge fit enough to compete with their wild counterparts and cerned that mandatory labeling would lead to people rejectingquickly seek females to mate with, resulting in inviable offspring.these products and increased problems with food insecurity,Source: University of California - San Diegosaid Linlin Fan, assistant professor of agricultural economics at Penn State. While we did see a small decrease in sales, it wasnt a large effect, and we also found that attitudes about GEAGRI-ENVIRONMENT MEASURES BOOST products improved over time. WILDLIFE POPULATIONS IN LONG-TERM FARM The law went into effect in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2022, definingSTUDYGE foods as those that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques and cannotAgri-environment schemes can significantly increase local bird be created through conventional breeding or found in nature. and butterfly populations without damaging food production, a In the study, the team compared Vermont data from 2016long-term research project has found.following the state implemented Act 120 with Oregon andScientists from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Washingtontwo states that almost passed a statewide man- (UKCEH) spent a decade intensively monitoring the impacts of datory GE labeling law. a large-scale Defra-funded experiment at Hillesden, a 1,000-hec-The data compiled sales records of canned soups with GEtare commercial arable farm in Buckinghamshire. Beginning in labels, sales trends of organic products and products with the2005, this involved creating several wildlife habitats, including label non-GMO. Researchers discovered the sales of foodsseed-bearing plants for birds, wildflowers for pollinators and labeled GE decreased while the law was active, yet the trendtussocky grass margins to support a range of birds, insects and reversed when the law was repealed. small mammals.Once the law was no longer in effect, sales of GE-labeledThe experiment assessed the effectiveness of these agri-en-products actually increased by 6%, suggesting improved atti- vironmental measures in reducing biodiversity losses caused by tudes toward GE products over time, Fan said. This could bethe intensification of UK farming practices since the Second World because people became more familiar and comfortable withWar, including declines in species that are essential for agricul-these products. tural production such as pollinators and predators of crop pests.In the longest-running monitoring study of its kind, researchers found numbers of the majority of species did better CRISPR-BASED TECHNOLOGY TARGETS GLOBALat Hillesden than in other comparable farmed landscapes with-CROP PEST out agri-environment measures over the same timeframes. There were increases of a third across populations of all bird species Applying new CRISPR-based technology to a broad agriculturalbetween 2006 and 2016, compared to an average of just under need, researchers at the University of California San Diego have13 per cent at other monitored sites, and 40 per cent among all set their aims on a worldwide pest known to decimate valuablebutterflies 2009-2017, compared to 21 per cent elsewhere.food crops. A previous UKCEH study of six years harvesting data found Nikolay Kandul, Omar Akbari and their colleagues firstoverall yields at Hillesden were maintainedand enhanced for demonstrated the precision-guided sterile insect technique, orsome cropsdespite the loss of agricultural land for habitat pgSIT, in Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, in 2019.creation.The technology, later adapted to mosquitoes, uses programmableAbundance of the common linnet more than doubled at CRISPR techniques to edit key genes that control sex determina- Hillesden, while other seed-eating birds that fared better there tion and fertility. Under the new system, pgSIT-developed insectcompared to other sites included yellowhammer and chaffinch. eggs are deployed into a targeted population and only sterileMeanwhile, birds that usually feed on insects benefited from males hatch, resulting in a fertility dead end for that species. the shelter provided by hedges and grass margins, including the Kandul, Akbari and their colleagues have now adapted thegreat tit (up 88 per cent) and blue tit (up 73 per cent).technology for use in Drosophila suzukii, an invasive fruit flyButterflies that did particularly well at Hillesden over the (also known as the spotted-wing drosophila) responsible for mil- period studied included the gatekeeper, which feeds on grasses lions of dollars in crop damage. The advancement is describedand the green-veined white, which feeds on wildflowers in field in the journal GEN Biotechnology. margins. The numbers of both species doubled over the period D. suzukii flies have invaded many parts of the world andstudied.caused widespread agricultural and economic damage to sev- Source: UK Centre For Ecology & Hydrology70IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'