INFORM September 2024

REGULATORY REVIEW

inform September 2024, Vol. 35 (8) • 27

Achieving pennycress exemption

Regulatory Review is a regular column featuring updates on regulatory matters concerning oils- and fats-related industries.

Specifically, § 340.1(b)(1) through (4) proposed to exempt such plants if: • The genetic modification is solely a deletion of any size; or • The genetic modification is a single base pair substitu tion; or • The genetic modification is solely introducing nucleic acid sequences from within the plant’s natural gene pool or from editing nucleic acid sequences in a plant to correspond to a sequence known to occur in that plant’s natural gene pool; or 7 • The plant is an offspring of a GE plant and does not retain the genetic modification in the GE plant parent. In addition to above-listed categories, proposed § 340.1(c) states that modified plants would not be subject to the reg ulations if they have plant-trait-mechanism of action (MOA) combinations that are the same as those of modified plants for which APHIS has conducted a regulatory status review (RSR) and found not to be subject to the regulations under part 340. DETERMINING VALUE According to a recent paper published in the AOCS journal, Sustainable Food Proteins : The benefits of growing penny cress as a cover crop include: (1) exceptional winter hardiness, (2) shorter life cycle/earlier harvest compared to other winter annual oilseeds, (3) agricultural sustainability (i.e., improved nitrogen management, reduced soil erosion and nutrient loss, weed suppression, and abated pollution of waterways), (4) nominal food-versus-fuel issue on land usage, and (5) addi tional income to farmers during the normally fallow season when ca. 35 M acres of U.S. Midwestern farmland are barren. Additionally, USDA ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois established pennycress seed protein as another income-gen erating product that would increase pennycress’ worth as a cover crop to farmers. Milagros P. Hojilla-Evangelista con ducted pioneering research that developed protein extraction methods (alkali solubilization-acid precipitation and saline based extraction) for wild-type pennycress (WTP) and revealed the properties of the protein products. The work used hex ane defatted seed meal and press cake (PC, obtained by seed cooking then mechanical pressing) as starting materials and

Rebecca Guenard

Field pennycress ( Thlaspi arvense L.) is a winter annual crop in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) that grows widely in temperate regions of North America. It is historically an agricultural weed. However, research by AOCS members who work as USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Peoria, Illinois led to its cultivation as an off-season crop between corn harvest and soybean planting. Now, the oil-rich seeds serve as a feedstock for producing biofuel and aviation fuel, while the protein-rich meal is valuable to the food industry. But first, they needed regulatory approval to breed the crop. The Plant Protection Act of 2000 (PPA) provides USDA with broad authority to protect United States agriculture, the environment, and the economy by, among other things, regulating the movement of plants and articles to prevent the introduction or dissemination of a plant pest within the United States. Under the regulation the agency has author ity to oversee the detection, control, eradication, suppres sion, prevention, or retardation of the spread of plant pests to protect agriculture, the environment, and the economy of the US. As such, USDA, through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), regulates the “Movement of Organisms Modified or Produced through Genetic Engineering,” as described in 7 CFR part 340. These regulations do not apply to plants that contain a modification of a type listed in § 340.1(b) or § 340.1(c).