The aisles of your corner grocery may look mundane. But as you walk past the stacks of cherries and blueberries, the ears of corn and bottles of white wine, consider that you are witnessing a race against time.
Every day, our planet grows a little hotter and a little more crowded. Every day, we need to grow and distribute more food in the face of more hostile conditions. Every day, scientists race to develop tougher crops that can withstand growing heat, drought and ferocious storms to feed a growing population.
“Our existing varieties of crops, our existing seeds, are not necessarily well-adapted to the new environment,” said Glenn Denning, a professor of development policy at Columbia University. “We have to look elsewhere.”
The race never stops. It plays out year after year, in our laboratories, on our farms, and along the aisles of our supermarkets. We have managed to stay one step ahead largely due to human ingenuity.
The quest for a more perfect crop is about to take a quantum leap. Scientists have developed a breakthrough technology that will allow us to develop new crops built for a harsher climate.
It’s called gene editing and it could prove vital to our survival in a warmer world.
For most of human history, genetic engineering meant breeding uncommonly tasty fruits and vegetables. Take corn. Over generations, we fashioned corn from a similar plant that sported fewer kernels, each hidden beneath a hard shell.
Today, we don’t need to wait for desirable mutations. We can borrow beneficial traits from other species. Scientists installed DNA from a bacteria known to kill insects into the genetic blueprint of corn. The resulting crop could fend off pests.
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