"Jurassic World" and the Dinosaurs at the USDA

The new movie Jurassic World offers more than a few lessons relevant to the state of our world. There is the obvious point about scientists bringing back to life genetically engineered dinosaurs with no real concern for the havoc they may wreak. Then there is the very clear link to real-world "de-extinction" scientists who seriously aim to bring back mastodons and passenger pigeons, while others are finding ever more potent means to mess around with the code of life to manufacture completely new organisms through synthetic biology.

There are also the dinosaur-like regulations of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), developed way back in the 1980s before many of the new biotechnologies were even conceived. Those regulations are in desperate need of an overhaul if they are ever to protect the public from the onslaught of dangerous and unpredictable impacts that necessarily accompany the derailing of billions of years of evolution for the purpose of corporate profit-making.

Right now in fact, the USDA is in the process of evaluating and overhauling these antiquated regulations, a process that should...