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GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANIMALS from Lab to Factory Farm Acknowledgments This Report Was Written by Dr

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GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANIMALS from Lab to Factory Farm Acknowledgments This Report Was Written by Dr GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANIMALS From Lab to Factory Farm Acknowledgments This report was written by Dr. Janet Cotter, Logos Environmental, UK and Dana Perls, M.C.P., Senior Food and Technology Campaigner, Friends of the Earth U.S. Friends of the Earth would like to thank Anthony Jackson, GeneWatch UK; Tamara Lebrecht, GeneWatch UK; Louise Sales, Friends of the Earth Australia; and Katharina Kawall, Fachstelle Gentechnik und Umwelt, Germany for review of this report. About Friends of the Earth: Friends of the Earth fights to protect our environment and create a healthy and just world. We are more than one million members and activists across all 50 states working to make this vision a reality. We are part of the Friends of the Earth International Federation, a network in 74 countries working for social and environmental justice. Visit www.foe.org to learn more. About Logos Environmental: Logos Environmental is a scientific consultancy for environmental nongovernmental organizations set up in 2015. Contact: [email protected]. Any errors or omissions in this report are the responsibility of Friends of the Earth U.S. ©Copyright September 2019 by Friends of the Earth U.S. Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Current problems with the intensive farming of animals .....................................................................................................6 What is a genetically engineered animal? .................................................................................................................................. 7 What is gene editing? ................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Cloning as part of the genetic engineering process ....................................................................................................... 9 Status of genetically engineered animals .................................................................................................................................10 Gene editing in farm animals ...................................................................................................................................................11 Are genetically engineered animals necessary in agriculture? ........................................................................................ 12 Ethical and welfare concerns for genetically engineered animals ................................................................................. 14 Consumer acceptance of genetically engineered animals ................................................................................................ 15 Could gene drive systems be applied to farm animals? ...................................................................................................... 16 Concerns regarding gene drive systems in farm animals ............................................................................................16 Complexity of animal genomes ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 Unintended ‘Skipping’ ...............................................................................................................................................................18 Genetic errors created by genetic engineering processes ................................................................................................ 19 Genetic errors in first-generation genetically engineered animals ..........................................................................19 Unexpected effects with gene editing: off-target ........................................................................................................ 20 Unexpected effects with gene editing: on-target ........................................................................................................ 20 Interference with gene regulation caused by gene editing ........................................................................................21 Food safety and environmental concerns of genetically engineered farm animals ...............................................22 Concerns for food safety and consumer’s health ..........................................................................................................22 Contamination of food from experimental genetically engineered animals .......................................................23 Environmental issues associated with genetically engineered farm animals .....................................................23 Escape of genetically engineered animals into the wider environment ...............................................................23 Use of antibiotic resistance marker genes .......................................................................................................................24 Impacts of farming genetically engineered animals on the environment ............................................................24 Regulation of genetically engineered animals in the U.S. ..................................................................................................25 Patents on genetically engineered animals ......................................................................................................................25 Environmental and food safety oversight of genetically engineered animals in the U.S. ..............................25 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................................................................................27 References ...............................................................................................................................................................................................28 Gene-edited farm animals, including cows, sheep, pigs and chicken are in the development pipeline. Executive Summary regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR, are not as precise or predictable as In the face of environmental degradation and initially thought, and can result in unintended biodiversity loss from industrial agriculture, it is physical and genetic mutations that may be critical to transition to sustainable and ecological inhumane, risky for the health of animals and farming systems.1 But a new wave of research on consumers and environmentally unsustainable. genetically engineered animals is leading us in Gene editing techniques may be subject to little the opposite direction — by designing animals to no regulatory oversight or safety assessment. to better fit within industrial systems rather than addressing the underlying health, animal welfare This report provides insight on health, and environmental problems associated with environmental, ethical and consumer concerns these systems.2 A growing body of scientific raised by the proliferation of research on evidence is finding that genetically engineered genetically engineered animals. We highlight animals may present even more food safety, potential risks related to gene editing environmental and animal welfare issues for an applications in livestock agriculture as reported already problematic industrial animal farming in peer-reviewed scientific studies. We system. emphasize gaps in research and data analysis about how unintended genetic errors resulting The AquAdvantage salmon was the first from gene editing may impact animal welfare, genetically engineered animal approved for human health and the environment. We also human consumption. Since its approval in 2015, raise questions about whether gene-edited concerns about engineering animals have only livestock are necessary, and what a more deepened. Emerging scientific literature reveals sustainable, ethical and healthy path for our food that genetic engineering techniques, including system could look like. new gene editing techniques like clustered 1 Friends of the Earth • Genetically Engineered Animals: From Lab to Factory Farm GMOs — organisms might evolve to be resistant to gene drives,7 and the technology could give rise to off-target effects, which may have severe health, welfare and ecological implications for animals or ecosystems.8 Feeding the nearly 10 billion animals raised annually in U.S. factory farms requires a staggering amount of land, genetically engineered seed and toxic pesticides, fertilizer, fuel and water.9 Industrial animal agriculture is The impetus of genetic engineering is to design animals that a leading cause of climate change, accounting survive better in factory farms. for 16.5 percent of global greenhouse gas Engineering Animals for Factory Farms emissions.10 Raising billions of animals in confinement also generates massive amounts of The multitude of problems associated with noxious manure that pollute our air and water — factory farming are unlikely to be addressed and especially in nearby communities. Routine use may be exacerbated by the use of genetically of antibiotics in animal agriculture that allow engineered farm animals in
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