---
title: "CRISPR Co-Inventor: We’ll Be Eating Gene-Edited Food In Five Years"
description: "CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna believes the tech's most profound impact on the mainstream in the next five years will be gene-edited food."
date: "2019-04-22"
modified: "2019-04-22"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/crispr-co-inventor-gene-edited-food"
categories:
  - "Agriculture"
  - "Food"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "agriculture"
  - "CRISPR"
  - "jennifer doudna"
---

# CRISPR Co-Inventor: We’ll Be Eating Gene-Edited Food In Five Years

![CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna believes the tech's most profound impact on the mainstream in the next five years will be gene-edited food.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/crispr-co-inventor-gene-edited-food.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock\</em\>*

## CRISPR'd Crops

Jennifer Doudna, one of the co-inventors of CRISPR, thinks she knows which application for the powerful gene-editing tool will be the first to affect the mainstream — and it has nothing to do with [curing diseases](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/new-crispr-tech-cure-herpes>) or creating [designer babies](<https://futurism.com/rogue-biohacker-gene-hack-designer-babies>).

"I think in the next five years the most profound thing we'll see in terms of CRISPR's effects on people's everyday lives will be in the agricultural sector," Doudna [told *Business Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/first-crispr-food-5-years-berkeley-scientist-inventor-2019-4>) — and those CRISPR'd crops have the potential to help alleviate problems ranging from hunger to obesity.

## Not GMOs

Let's get this out of the way first: Gene-edited crops are very different from the [controversial](<https://futurism.com/science-gmo-food-evolution>) genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

While genetic modification involves mixing and matching genes from different organisms — splicing DNA from a pesticide-resistant bacteria into soybean seeds, for example — gene editing involves making changes to an organism's genome that could happen through a natural mutation.

The distinction between the two is so profound that the U.S. Department of Agriculture [announced in March 2018](<https://futurism.com/usda-gene-edited-crops>) it wouldn't subject gene-edited crops to any additional regulation — a far more hands-off approach than it takes [with GMOs](<https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be>).

## Better Bites

We've already seen several examples of researchers using CRISPR to give crops beneficial traits — they've edited [tomato plants](<https://futurism.com/geneticists-have-used-crispr-gene-editing-to-create-crops-that-grow-more-food>) to ensure a higher crop yield, [mushrooms](<https://www.nature.com/news/gene-edited-crispr-mushroom-escapes-us-regulation-1.19754>) to prevent browning, and [soybeans](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/first-gene-edited-food-us-restaurants>) to prevent the production of trans fats.

Those three examples alone illustrate CRISPR's potential to give us more food that lasts longer and is healthier than what we currently have — and if Doudna is right, we could see those [super-charged foods](<https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/future-of-food/food-technology-gene-editing/>) and others make their way onto our dinner plates very soon.

**READ MORE:** [We'll be eating the first Crispr'd foods within 5 years, according to a geneticist who helped invent the blockbuster gene-editing tool](<https://www.businessinsider.com/first-crispr-food-5-years-berkeley-scientist-inventor-2019-4>) \[*Business Insider*\]

**More on gene-edited food:** *[The First Gene-Edited Food Has Reached US Restaurants](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/first-gene-edited-food-us-restaurants>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)