Sustainable Agri-Food Technology Summit (SAFTS)

January 29, 2024 | Patti Mulligan

About SAFTS May 21, 2024, NC State Plant Sciences Building | USDA-NIFA Funded Workshop Registration coming soon Register now to be part of SAFTS—shaping a sustainable future for agri-food technology. Participant Resources Access to resource...

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Workshop | Gene Drives in Agriculture: Risk Assessment and Research Prioritization

April 21, 2022 | Patti Mulligan

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Khara Grieger, NC State assistant professor and extension specialist

NC State receives USDA/NIFA grant to evaluate societal impacts and foster sustainability of GE and nanotech in agriculture

February 11, 2022 | Patti Mulligan

February 10, 2022 | Khara Grieger, together with GES Co-director Jennifer Kuzma, will lead a $650,000 project that will support the responsible development of novel agrifood technologies to contribute to more sustainable food and ag systems. ...

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Perspectives on the new USDA regulation on GM crops | GES Colloquium

May 20, 2020 | Patti Mulligan

GES faculty will review how the new USDA rule changes regulation of GM crops in comparison to the agency's previous regulatory approach and in light of findings from the 2016 NASEM GM Crops committee. Diverse perspectives on the new USDA rule will be shared followed by Q and A and discussion with the attendees....

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USDA to biotech: Call your own compliance

July 30, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

Steven Suppan, July 30, 2019 | The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants agribusiness to sell more genetically engineered (GE) seeds and food products all over the world, as soon as possible. This rule would go beyond already controversial genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to encompass hundreds of new products of new gene and genome editing techniques. The fastest way to do that?...

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Image of seedling in the field with molecular background

GES Center awarded half-million dollar grant to study responsible innovation of food nanotechnology

July 25, 2019 | Patti Mulligan

July 25, 2019 | Khara Grieger and Jennifer Kuzma will lead a two-year, USDA-funded study of responsible innovation of food nanotechnology....

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Figure 1 Summary of GE Plants Oversight in Proposed Rule - J. Kuzma

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 2 – The USDA-APHIS Rule

July 2, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma, July 2, 2019 | USDA-APHIS has proposed an oversight process for GE crops that appears to be a significant departure from the current one. This article discusses the features of the proposed new rule, along with its strengths and weaknesses and my recommendations for how it should be amended. ...

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Word cloud created from the language in the Regulation of Ag Biotech Executive Order

Biotechnology Oversight Gets an Early Make-Over by Trump’s White House and USDA: Part 1—The Executive Order

June 18, 2019 | Jennifer Kuzma

Jennifer Kuzma, June 18, 2019 | Last week, the Trump administration set the tone for its oversight of agricultural biotechnology (ag biotech) through two major actions: 1) Signing the Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products Executive Order; and 2) Proposing a draft rule on the Movement of Certain Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs), changing how USDA reviews GE plants....

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Scientists have found a fast and cheap way to edit your food’s DNA

Washington Post: Kuzma calls for mandatory regulatory process for gene-edited foods

August 13, 2018 | Patti Mulligan

“We need a mandatory regulatory process: not just for scientific reasons, but for consumer and public confidence,” Kuzma said. “I think the vast majority of gene-edited foods are going to be as safe as their conventionally bred counterparts. But I don’t buy into the argument that’s true all the time for every crop.”...

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Kuzma quoted on ecological impacts and regulation of GE products

June 25, 2018 | Patti Mulligan

To critics, the case laid bare glaring weaknesses in the country’s oversight of genetically engineered, or GE, crops. While biotechnology’s defenders say the process is already overly rigorous, others have long argued that regulations, which haven’t changed significantly since 1987, don’t do enough to protect agriculture and the environment. Neither the USDA nor any government agency must weigh the full social, economic and ecological impacts of GE products, says Jennifer Kuzma, co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University. “There’s really no place that’s looking at this broadly from a risk-benefit perspective.”...

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Photo of Dr. Jennifer Kuzma, Co-Director of the GES Center

Politics “Trumps” Science in the Regulation of Genetically Engineered Crops

November 7, 2017 | Jennifer Kuzma

In recent years, the regulatory system for biotechnology products has not kept pace with newer ways of engineering organisms, such as through the use of gene editing like CRISPR-Cas9 systems. Under the Obama administration, progress had been made in clarifying U.S. biotechnology regulations. In January 2017, in the last few days of Obama’s term, several proposals were made for updating agency regulations and guidance documents. In particular, new US USDA regulations were proposed for GE crops. Fast forward ten months, and the Trump administration has pulled this proposed rule back to “start fresh” and reconsider the issue. This is no surprise, as it is not uncommon for new political administrations to recall regulatory policy for biotech. Many industry and academic scientists developing GE crops are pleased to hear about the Trump administration’s recall of USDA proposed regulations....

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Graphic of corn cobs with DNA

Genetic Literacy Project: USDA scraps overhaul of GMO and gene edited crop regulations that biotech advocates viewed as ‘unscientific’

November 7, 2017 | Patti Mulligan

“I think the real reason [for the withdrawal] is that the new proposed rule would have brought more gene-edited crops under its authority,” stated Kuzma. “And this new administration isn’t too fond of regulations in general.”...

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Tractor plowing a field.

Science: Trump’s agriculture department reverses course on biotech rules

November 7, 2017 | Patti Mulligan

It’s a predictable move by President Donald Trump’s White House to take another look at the policies of the previous administration, says Jennifer Kuzma, a social scientist who co-directs the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “I expected them to eventually catch wind that this was something that USDA was doing, and reverse it.”...

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