The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced awards to advance research on public engagement and the implications of gene drive and other gene editing technologies. The funding is made possible through the Social Implications of Emerging Technologies initiative within NIFA’s Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities program area.
“Recent advances in gene editing technologies promise opportunities for meeting challenges that come with a rapidly growing global population,” says NIFA acting director Tom Shanower. “However, these advances also raise important questions about their acceptability and potential unintended impacts, so NIFA created the Social Implications of Emerging Technologies program in 2017 to fund research on stakeholder and public engagement …”
A University of Florida project will define consumer preferences for regulation and consumption of food derived from gene-edited crops and determine the most effective way to communicate about gene-editing technology to educate consumers. Researchers at Iowa State University will identify key inducements and impediments to public trust of gene-edited foods and their governance.
A Santa Fe Institute of Science project has three immediate objectives: develop a quantitative theoretical framework to model complex social-cognitive processes as applied to the particular context of genetically modified crops; use the framework to develop research hypotheses; and test predictions in a longitudinal experimental study on a national sample. Texas A&M University will evaluate the environment for public and stakeholder engagement around the potential research, development, and use of gene drive technology in the control of agricultural pests in Texas.
