Potato crisps from CRISPR-Cas9 modification: aspects of autonomy and fairness

TY - GEN

T1 - Potato crisps from CRISPR-Cas9 modification

T2 - Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics

AU - Röcklinsberg, Helena

AU - Gjerris, Mickey

N1 - Conference code: 14

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Within the Swedish MISTRA Biotech research programme the quality of starch in potatoes has been changed by use of different technologies such asCRISPR-Cas9. The idea is to increase the level of amylose, both for health reasons and as a mean to investigate possibilities for replacing fossil based oxygen barriers in food packages, thus reducing the climate impact. The goals thus seem laudable to most, but the experience of introducing GMOs on the market shows that even though there might be agreement on the goals, the strategy of using biotechnology to achieve them can be ethically contested. We describe the intentions behind developing the new plants and analyse some of the ethical issues that the development and marketing of the gene-edited potatoes raise. We argue that the concepts of autonomy and fairness are useful tools to understand many of the conflicting ethical values in the discussions relating to gene-editing. From our perspective these concepts are interrelated and relevant in at least two ways: (1) fairness in terms of both financial power and labelling as a means to ensure equal opportunities to make an autonomous decision as an individual ethical consumer and (2) fairness in term of equal market power between autonomous market actors.

AB - Within the Swedish MISTRA Biotech research programme the quality of starch in potatoes has been changed by use of different technologies such asCRISPR-Cas9. The idea is to increase the level of amylose, both for health reasons and as a mean to investigate possibilities for replacing fossil based oxygen barriers in food packages, thus reducing the climate impact. The goals thus seem laudable to most, but the experience of introducing GMOs on the market shows that even though there might be agreement on the goals, the strategy of using biotechnology to achieve them can be ethically contested. We describe the intentions behind developing the new plants and analyse some of the ethical issues that the development and marketing of the gene-edited potatoes raise. We argue that the concepts of autonomy and fairness are useful tools to understand many of the conflicting ethical values in the discussions relating to gene-editing. From our perspective these concepts are interrelated and relevant in at least two ways: (1) fairness in terms of both financial power and labelling as a means to ensure equal opportunities to make an autonomous decision as an individual ethical consumer and (2) fairness in term of equal market power between autonomous market actors.

U2 - 10.3920/978-90-8686-869-8_68

DO - 10.3920/978-90-8686-869-8_68

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-90-8686-321-1

SP - 430

EP - 435

BT - Professionals in food chains

A2 - Springer, Svenja

A2 - Grimm, Herwig

PB - Wageningen Academic Publishers

Y2 - 13 June 2018 through 16 June 2018

ER -