Organic Standards Board Votes to Exclude Next Generation GMOs

As part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the NOSB is a Federal Advisory Board tasked with making decisions about the production of certified organic products. Organic standards deal largely with food production methods, including a list of allowed and prohibited substances. Genetic engineering is one such production method that is excluded from the standards.

However, as new genetic engineering technology has developed, the stance on certain GMOs was less clear. For instance, synthetic biology refers to a new set of genetic engineering techniques where DNA is manipulated in ways that include editing in order to silence the expression of a trait, or artificially re-engineering organisms in order to produce substances they wouldn’t normally produce.

According to Dana Peris, food and technology policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth, “The Board’s hard-fought proactive stance on synthetic biology will both help preserve the integrity of organic standards and raise awareness about this virtually unregulated and unlabeled form of genetic engineering.” She goes on to state that all new genetic engineering technologies that emerge should be treated with the same scrutiny as the first generation of GMOs.

Critics of synthetic biology point to a lack of adequate, independent safety assessments, particularly in relation to human health and the environment. Despite this, many synthetic biology products are currently in development—such as stevia, cacao, saffron, and coconut—and the techniques are likely to be harnessed for more food products in the future. In 2014, a vanilla flavoring replacement, marketed as “natural vanillin”, was the first synthetic biology product available on the market.

In addition to excluding next generation GMOs from the organic standards, the NSOB voted to approve new criteria that would help determine if future production methods would qualify as genetic engineering and therefore be excluded from the organic standards. These criteria includes respecting the genome as an invisible entity, and encouraging the exchange of genetic resources, among others.

The Board’s vote also comes in the wake of a growing number of companies saying they will not use products produced through synthetic biology, including Ben and Jerry’s, Nutiva, and Dr. Bronner’s. Even more companies have committed specifically to not using the vanilla flavoring produced through synthetic biology, including General Mills and Nestle.

What do you think? Is the NOSB right to exclude GMOs from the organic standards? Let us know!