New genetically engineered Frankenfoods made with synthetic biology (what the industry calls “precision fermentation”) are already being sold in stores. They’re different from Monsanto’s first GMOs, the Roundup Ready crops that were tweaked with bacterial DNA that made them impervious to the herbicides that would normally kill them.
Roundup Ready GMOs grow from seed like normal crops. They look and taste like regular corn, soy, canola, etc. (even though they contain proteins human beings had never eaten before).
The new GMOs are 100% synthetic. Instead of growing in living plants, they are spit out of genetically engineered yeast or E. coli. Instead of having foreign DNA from another living organism, their molecules and DNA might be totally unique structures not found in nature.
These new synthetic Frankenfoods could be toxic or trigger allergies, but companies like Perfect Day, a maker of “dairy identical” synbio GMOs, say they’re just like real food.
