Florida’s orange growers have been losing trees to “citrus greening” disease for over a decade. The two most popular options are genetic engineering or breeding immune trees, both pose challenges as no naturally immune tress seem to exist and genetically modified trees would take 10-20 years to mature and test and would bare the ever unpopular GMO label.
Enter science. The search for a solution landed on vaccination, with “One particularly promising set of genes coming from the spinach plant, coding for a group of antibacterial proteins called defensins.” For a state that has lost almost 70% production since this elegant solution may be the answer, especially considering trees treated with the vaccine would not need to carry the GMO label. In tests since 2010, on Monday the US Department of Agriculture posted a notice that it intends to conduct an environmental impact assessment, meaning if all goes well. the vaccine should be in wide distribution by 2019.
More on Citrus Greening:
Why It’s Hot:
- Biotechnology can be both scary and brilliantly useful. the debate goes on
- There was no mention of it, but curious of what impact, if any the Trump administration will have on such ventures since they have stated wanted to push these types of innovation through the market
- What is the cost/benefit of using these types of solutions or genetic modification if it keeps people in work and commodity prices down?