The recent approval of the non-browning Arctic apple got us thinking: What other genetically modified organisms are the USDA and FDA considering for deregulation?
We first reported about the Arctic apple back in 2012—a simpler time when GMO apples were still safely confined to high-security field trials. But even though it took the USDA three years to sign off on the apple, it all seems so… sudden. Could natural activists have done more to prevent Arctic from coming to fruition?
Even more worrisome is that the apple may set a precedent for GMO deregulations that don’t offer any real need. It wasn’t as if the apple industry, valued at $3.1 billion in 2012, was hurting. With the approval of a purely cosmetic GMO, what other crops may soon be coming to grocery stores?
