RethinkX | 6 May 2024
Genetic engineering and modification are integral to the precision fermentation process because these technologies allow scientists to control the fermentation process and ensure that the microorganisms are producing the desired outputs.
Many microorganisms output desirable products naturally as well, but the disruptive power of precision fermentation is in the ability to produce any molecule we desire so that we can build a food system around it.
That being said, it is the microorganisms themselves that are GMOs, not the products they produce. Final PF products do not contain the microorganisms—usually fungi, bacteria or algae—and therefore and therefore do not contain genetically modified genes at all.
Because precision fermentation occurs in a lab or facility, producers are able to capture waste (which does contain the spent microorganisms) and dispose of them in such a way that will not release genetically modified microorganisms into the environment.
We are on the cusp of the deepest, fastest, most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals 10,000 years ago.
This disruption has already begun. We are already consuming foods and other products made with modified yeasts and Precision Fermentation.
Learn more about the disruption and transformation of the food & agriculture sector.
Published on: 12/07/23
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