US National Organic Standards Board votes to ban new genetic engineering tech from organic foods

the United States’ National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) unanimously voted to amend the current US standards for organic foods. Their update will place a ban on ingredients that are derived from new genetic engineering techniques from being used in certified organic products.  The NOSB vote also serves as a recommendation from the organization to the US Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program. The board says it will do its best to ensure that genetically modified ingredients that are produced using new genetic engineering technology will not find their way into certified organic foods and beverages. Dana Perls, the senior food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth, told TriplePundit, “The NOSB is clear that GMOs do not belong in organic. In the absence of strong federal regulations on the labeling and commercialization of genetic engineering, the organic standard continues to provide consumers with a transparent and clear way to avoid GMOs in the food they eat.”  One of the new methods of genetic engineering that the NOSB is particularly concerned with is called “synthetic biology.”  According to Friends of the Earth (FOE), this new technique designs and creates new organisms that can produce something they would not normally produce, or it can also be used to edit DNA and prevent certain traits from being expressed.