RNA-based sprays for crops

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The co-founder of Moderna just launched a new company. This time, the target is not your body. It is your food. Terrana Biosciences, backed by $50 million from Flagship Pioneering, the same firm behind Moderna, is developing RNA-based sprays designed to be applied directly to crops. The company describes it as "speaking the plant's language," using AI-driven RNA technology to reprogram how plants grow, resist disease, and respond to climate conditions, all without, they say, touching the plant's genome. One of Terrana's three product categories is explicitly described as performing like a programmable vaccine, training plants to recognize pathogens and destroy them before they become infections. The sprays can be applied to leaves, coated onto seeds, and used post-harvest. Once inside the plant, the RNA remains long enough to carry out its intended function and in some cases can be inherited by the next generation of the plant. The company insists that its RNA will be broken down by the human digestive system before reaching our cells. But has that actually been tested and confirmed? The article raises the question directly and the answer is not reassuring. This technology has no regulatory approval, is still in early research and development, and is being built by the same founders who brought the world mRNA vaccine technology that is still being litigated in courts across the globe. The argument that it is safe because it is "native-like" deserves far more scrutiny than it is currently receiving.

@ChelleWards

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@tracybeanz

lay out everything you need to know.

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