DuPont Pioneer plans to market gene-edited CRISPR corn, USDA will not regulate it as a GMO

DuPont Pioneer announced plans to market the first crop that uses a type of precise genetic modification called CRISPR-Cas9.  DuPont . . . wants to see the product — a hybrid type of corn — in farmers’ fields as early as 2021. The US Department of Agriculture has said that it will not subject the CRISPR corn to the same rules as traditional GMOs. In response to Pioneer’s “Regulated Article Letter of Inquiry,” about the new product, the USDA said that it does not consider the CRISPR corn “as regulated by USDA Biotechnology Regulatory Services.” At the center of the agency’s decision not to subject the new crop to its rules is the fact that the CRISPR-edited crops don’t contain any “introduced genetic material” or foreign DNA, and so would not be a threat to other plants.