Environmental Groups Call for Tighter Regulation of ‘Extreme Genetic Engineering’

Genetically engineered microbes that might one day churn out biofuels, clean up toxic waste or generate new medicines need to be proved safe before they are released into the environment, a coalition of 111 environmental and social justice groups said Tuesday.

Led by the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth, the coalition also called for stronger government regulations over “extreme genetic engineering” and a moratorium on the commercial use and release of lab-created organisms.

“Without proper safeguards, we risk letting synthetic organisms and their products out of the laboratory with unknown potential to disrupt ecosystems, threaten human health and undermine social, economic and cultural rights,” the coalition said in a new report.

The technology to manipulate the genes of bacteria, yeast and other organisms has existed since the 1970s, leading to pest-resistant crops, bacteria that produce human insulin and other breakthroughs.

But in 2010, biologist J. Craig Venter announced that his institute had invented “synthetic biology” by transplanting the entire genome of one bacterium into a different species, which then reproduced. While not qualifying as an entirely...