Claire Robinson

Currently governments around the world are moving to scrap regulatory safeguards around genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are claimed to contain no foreign genes or foreign DNA. They choose to believe GMO lobby assertions that GM gene-edited plants and animals don’t contain any foreign genetic material in their genomes and are therefore as “natural” and safe as conventionally bred plants and animals.

But this is false. GM gene-edited organisms pose risks that are not confined to the presence of foreign DNA. And GM gene-edited plants and animals can and do contain foreign genetic material in their genomes, either by intention or inadvertently due to the imprecision and limitations of the gene editing process. Below are some of the ways that foreign DNA can get into the genomes of gene-edited GMOs.