CRISPRcon 2020 Revisited: Peering into the Ag Pipeline
The second discussion of CRISPRcon’s theme of Hope and Hype, which was held on Oct. 1, took a deeper dive into what benefits gene editing and prior genetic technologies have delivered thus far in the agriculture sector and what might be on the horizon. The panel also discussed what can we learn from the past regarding the role of biotechnology in addressing pressing agricultural challenges.
Franklin Holley, director of the Agriculture & Food Program at the Keystone Policy Center, moderated the panel and explained the session’s intent.
“This session is not necessarily a catalogue of [new] products. It’s more about whether there’s a potential for societal benefit of gene edited products and how those products should be prioritized and assessed,” said Holley.
Leland Glenna, professor of rural sociology and science, technology, and society at Penn State University, drew upon society’s experience from the promises of transgenics in the 1990s,which he thinks failed to come to fruition because there was little investment in orphan or globally minor (though regionally or nationally major) crops. The benefits that did come during that era mostly went to major crops like corn, soybeans and canola. Glenna believes the decline in public sector investment in agricultural research is one reason for this.
“I’m not saying the private sector should not be involved in this. What I’m saying is we’re not going to see the kinds of investments developing some of these systems in orphan crops like cassava or peanuts…we are not likely to see a private company invest in that research because these are just small farmers with very little resources,” said Glenna.
Michael Doane, global managing director for sustainable food and water for The Nature Conservancy, argued that one potential benefit of modern gene editing products in agriculture, compared to early transgenics technology, is a possible increase in affordability that would allow more countries, individual farmers, and other entities to benefit.
“I think that one of the real distinguishing characteristics about gene editing and the various platforms that are being deployed to make some of these new products is hopefully that cost and application could be wider,” said Doane.
Chris Newman, co-founder of Sylvanaqua Farms, expressed skepticism over the potential impact of gene editing. A member of the Choptico Band of Piscataway Indians, Newman echoed sentiments discussed during CRISPRcon’s earlier panel on Indigenous perspectives that Indigenous people are already accomplishing most of the world’s biodiversity protection without gene editing technology.
“For me and for Indigenous people, biodiversity is the function of a healthy, functioning ecosystem. And when it comes to biodiversity, Indigenous people around the world—in the global north and the global south—tend to be best at it,” said Newman. “It’s not being done through market-based agriculture.”
Newman’s concerns went beyond the technology itself but rather to who owns and controls the technology. Modesta N. Abugu, fellow at the Cornell Alliance for Science, shared a similar perspective. Despite the potential benefits and advantages of technology – which she does believe is necessary to meet the challenges of climate change—there still needs to be improvements in access and trust.
“If we want to control some of the impact climate change is having on agriculture, going the way of modern technology is the best way to go. That said, I believe that the potentials for gene editing has more room to improve trust and to improve access than they did for GMOs,” said Abugu.
The panel also discussed regulations and their impact, using gene editing along with Indigenous techniques, expectations for societal benefits of gene editing, animal agriculture, and developing a more efficient food system. Speakers concluded by offering their advice to today’s scientists working on gene editing in agriculture. The full session is available below.
Michael Regan
Michael S. Regan was sworn in as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency on March 11, 2021, becoming the first Black man and second person of color to lead the U.S. EPA.
Administrator Regan is a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he developed a passion for the environment while hunting and fishing with his father and grandfather, and exploring the vast lands, waters, and inner Coastal Plain of North Carolina.
As the son of two public servants – his mother, a nurse for nearly 30 years, and his father, a retired Colonel with the North Carolina National Guard, Vietnam veteran, and former agricultural extension agent – Michael Regan went on to follow in his parents’ footsteps and pursue a life of public service.
Prior to his nomination as EPA Administrator, Michael Regan served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
As Secretary, he spearheaded the development and implementation of North Carolina’s seminal plan to address climate change and transition the state to a clean energy economy. Under his leadership, he secured the largest coal ash clean-up in United States history. He led complex negotiations regarding the clean-up of the Cape Fear River, which had been contaminated for years by the toxic chemicals per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). In addition, he established North Carolina’s first-of-its-kind Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory board to better align social inequities, environmental protection, and community empowerment.
Previously, Administrator Regan served as Associate Vice President of U.S. Climate and Energy, and as Southeast Regional Director of the Environmental Defense Fund where he convened energy companies, business leaders, environmental and industry groups, and elected officials across the country to achieve pragmatic solutions to the climate crisis.
He began his career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, eventually becoming a national program manager responsible for designing strategic solutions with industry and corporate stakeholders to reduce air pollution, improve energy efficiency and address climate change.
Throughout his career, he has been guided by a belief in forming consensus, fostering an open dialogue rooted in respect for science and the law, and an understanding that environmental protection and economic prosperity go hand in hand.
Administrator Regan is a graduate of the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, making him the first EPA Administrator to have graduated from a Historically Black College and University. He earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from The George Washington University.
He and his wife Melvina are proud parents to their son, Matthew.
Jonathan Pershing
Jonathan Pershing is the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads a team of grantmakers focused on climate change in the United States, China, India, Europe, and Latin America, and conserving the North American West. Jonathan served as Hewlett’s Environment Program director from 2017 to 2021 and returned to lead the program in 2022.
From 2021 to 2022, Pershing supported Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in advancing various international commitments over the past year. These include the conclusion of the Glasgow Climate Pact at the UN Climate Convention, adoption of a Global Methane Pledge by over 100 countries, a joint declaration between China and the U.S. on enhancing climate action, and a commitment by nations representing over half of the world’s economy to reduce their emissions to levels that will keep the warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next decade.
Previously, Jonathan served as Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State and lead U.S. negotiator to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Jonathan played a key role in successfully negotiating landmark climate change deals with nations such as China, India, the European Union, Canada and Mexico. In this capacity—as well as in his earlier capacity as Deputy Special Envoy—he was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and subsequently, as senior international climate advisor to the White House and Secretary of State, was charged with overseeing its early implementation.
Prior to that, Jonathan served as the Senior Climate Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the Department of Energy. He was a key architect of the “Mission Innovation” commitment to double climate and clean energy research and development budgets around the world, and a major contributor to the first ever “Quadrennial Energy Review,” a deep assessment of U.S. energy policy.
Jonathan spent six years as the director of the Climate, Energy and Pollution Program at the World Resources Institute; five years as the Head of the Environment Division at the International Energy Agency in Paris; and for nearly a decade in the 1990s, he served the Science Advisor and Deputy Director of the Office of Global Change in the U.S. Department of State.
He holds a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Minnesota. A scientist by training, he served as a lead author, review editor and contributor for reports of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and at American University, and he has published and lectured widely on climate and energy issues. In addition, he lived and worked for several years in Alaska in the energy and mining industry.
Jennifer Griffin
Jennifer Griffin currently serves as the Chief National Security correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). She joined FNC in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. Prior to that she reported for 3 years from Moscow for FNC.
Since 2007, Griffin has reported daily from the Pentagon where she questions senior military leaders, travels to war zones with the Joint Chiefs and Secretaries of Defense, and reports on all aspects of the military and the current wars against ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Most recently, Griffin reported on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war live from the Pentagon. She extensively covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reporting live from Lviv and Kyiv, Ukraine, where she presented an exclusive sit-down interview with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. In April of 2022, she secured an exclusive interview with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, which took place at Ramstein Air Base in Germany following his meeting with dozens of defense ministers on the war in Ukraine. Prior to traveling to Europe, Griffin spearheaded FNC’s Ukrainian war coverage stateside with around the clock updates from the Pentagon. In 2021, she led reporting surrounding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, notably grilling Pentagon Officials over their handling of the evacuation. Additionally, she covered the terror attack at Abbey Gate, including securing an interview with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
Additionally, Griffin covered the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, and the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. She has secured major interviews with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Baghdad on the day the Iraq War ended in December 2011, an exclusive interview with General David Petraeus in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2010 when he took over as the top US commander there. Griffin also traveled with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on multiple trips overseas from 2007 – 2011. She began her work at the Pentagon at the start of the “surge.”
During Griffin’s tenure at FNC, she has provided coverage from Israel. She provided on scene coverage of the Palestinian Intifada from 2000 – 2007 and was among the first reporters to arrive in the wake of the South-East Asia tsunami tragedy, reporting from Phuket and Khao Lak, Thailand. While based in Jerusalem, she reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, countless suicide bombings, military incursions, and failed peace deals. In 2000, she provided on-site coverage of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, its withdrawal from the Gaza strip in 2005 and Yasser Arafat’s funeral. Also, Griffin is credited with conducting a rare and extensive interview with former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon on his farm in 2009 before he lapsed into a coma.
Prior to joining FNC, Griffin covered the Middle East region for several American media organizations including National Public Radio and U.S. News & World Report. Previously, she reported for The Sowetan newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she covered Nelson Mandela’s prison release and numerous other historic moments in South Africa’s transition away from the apartheid regime.
A graduate of Harvard University in 1992, Griffin received a B.A. in comparative politics. Griffin played an integral role in the rescue of FNC’s state department correspondent Benjamin Hall. Her efforts were documented in Hall’s New York Times bestseller “Saved: A Reporter’s Mission to Make it Home.” In September 2022, Griffin received the Transatlantic Leadership Network’s “Freedom of the Media” Gold Medal for Public Service award. She is the co-author of the book, “This Burning Land: Lessons from the Frontlines of the Transformed Israeli- Palestinian Conflict,” which she wrote with her husband, Greg Myre, regarding their experience in Israel.
Rob Schwartz
As a career executive focused on leading business transformation, Rob has played a critical role in strategically reshaping Anterix into a leader in private wireless broadband communications for critical infrastructure.
Rob joined Anterix’s predecessor, pdvWireless, as Chief Strategy Officer in 2015, where, together with Executive Chairman Morgan O’Brien, he helped to conceive and lead the execution of Anterix’s vision of transformative broadband connectivity for the modern grid. Throughout his tenure with the company—becoming Chief Operating Officer and later President, CEO, and Director in 2020—Rob has progressively shaped Anterix into a creator of utility-first solutions for the industry’s most pressing energy challenges, leveraging 900 MHz private wireless broadband networks.
At Anterix, Rob, with his team, has created a track record of strategic achievements. These include securing the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to enable broadband development in the 900 MHz band; developing Anterix’s innovative, scalable business model; building industry-wide partnerships and harnessing momentum to bring together pioneering utilities and more than 100 leading technology companies driving solutions that leverage 900 MHz broadband; and developing a game-winning leadership team to accomplish the company’s transformative broadband mission. Rob also pioneered the founding of the Utility Broadband Alliance, the industry-leading utility-led organization championing private broadband networks as a key enabler of the energy transformation.
Prior to joining Anterix, Rob served in key leadership roles where he helped to build breakthrough telecommunications and technology companies, including Unison Site Management, IDT Telecom, The Associated Group, and Nextel. Rob serves as a board member of the Keystone Energy Board and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ. He is a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and The George Washington University School of Government & Business Administration.
Among his honors, Rob was shortlisted for the New Jersey Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2023 and is a recipient of the 2022 New Jersey Biz Digi-Tech Innovator Award.
Login
