Will Consumers Accept CRISPR Cattle?

By Jennifer Hill

This spring the FDA officially approved the first use of gene edited cattle for human food, opening up opportunities for technology such as CRISPR to get into the market. Bioengineering company Recombinetics received approval to move forward with their plan to gene edit cattle to be more heat resistant by inserting slick short hair hides that naturally occur in some breeds into more heat stress prone breeds. A recent study by Cornell University predicted that by the end of this century producers could experience a $15 and $40 billion loss annually directly related to heat stress, a figure that is likely driving some of the research. According to the FDA the approval came relatively quickly, taking around a year, because the genes being manipulated already exist in nature. Conversely the FDA has spent decades studying faster growing salmon and pigs with gene editing that would not exist naturally.

CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat, is a groundbreaking technology that was first made public ten years ago. It can be used to both isolate and alter DNA and activate or turn off specific genes without changing their sequence. According to the Food and Drug Law Institute the CRISPR system is made of two pieces working in tandem, “a finely tuned targeting device (a small strand of RNA programmed to bind to a specific DNA sequence) and a strong cutting device (an enzyme called Cas9 that can cut through a double strand of DNA at the binding site). Once inside a cell, the CRISPR system locates the DNA it is programmed to find. The CRISPR seeking device recognizes and binds to the target DNA. The Cas9 enzyme cuts both strands of the DNA.” New sections of DNA can then be inserted allowing the cell automatically incorporate the new DNA while repairing the broken DNA.

In addition to changing hair type and shed off, color is on the table as well.  Notably the American Hereford Association recently conducted a member survey asking Hereford breeders their thoughts on gene edited Hereford cattle being made black. Commercial cattlemen across the country have been crossing black hided breeds into their Herefords for generations, seeking the hybrid vigor but also wanting the Hereford efficiency with the CAB dollars that come with a black hide. A purebred black Hereford will certainly be a game changer for many. 

Among the many questions waiting for answers is will the market accept gene edited beef? In the last two decades we’ve seen remarkable growth in the markets for natural, organic, free-range and whatever other “non-traditional” label you can come up with. There’s been growing vocal pushes against what is deemed “factory farming” and anti-GMO products, despite the fact that most consumers cannot define what a GMO really is. It stands to reason that the same consumer base that panicked over the “pink slime” debacle and who see constant ads on TV for Round-Up lawsuits will be squeamish about gene edited beef.