NAS Warns US Regulations Unprepared for GE Trees
Four members of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees) testified before the NAS about the social and ecological dangers of releasing GE trees into wild forests in 2018.
From Nature: Transgenic trees face rocky path from farm to forest
Report from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine highlights thorny issues with releasing engineered trees into the wild
by Heidi Ledford, Nature, 08 January 2019
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00072-6
For more than three decades, US farmers have been growing genetically engineered crops. Now researchers are pushing to move the technology from farm to forest by releasing transgenic trees — engineered to carry genes that would make them resistant to pests — into the wild.
Regulatory and research challenges to such genetically modified trees could make that transition harder, according to a report released by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on 8 January. However, genetic engineering’s potential to boost forest health is promising enough to warrant further research, the report authors say.
Find full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00072-6