Those of you who have read my latest book “Nothing Happens up There” will know that the plot includes an American company producing genetically edited barley in a secret laboratory in Lincolnshire. The results can prove fatal. If that sounded far-fetched, think again.
Gene editing, using CRISPR techniques was in its early experimental form when I wrote that book in 2020. Since it was first used to create the Covid vaccine shortly after, it has rarely been out of the news.
Most of the news has concentrated on using gene editing to treat medical problems in humans. But a recent article in The Economist describes its use in developing new strains of staple plants, such as wheat.
Biotechnology companies like Imari, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts focus on editing genomes to help breeders tweak their crops towards higher yields.
“Oats, barley, rye …. Imagine if they all had the kind of gains we’ve seen in corn over the past 10 years.
For fiction to be believable it needs to have roots in truth. Keep an eye on the news about Mrna and gene-editing and what’s happening in British farming. After all nothing happens up there, or does it?
