In Sweden, Jansson is no stranger to unease over genetic engineering. His colleagues recently returned from a conference where activists flung cow dung and eggs at scientists. The CRISPR-edited cabbage he grew he actually got from researchers outside Sweden, who did not want their names or even their country revealed, fearing backlash from environmental activists.

[edited out content]

Too much of it can make humans sick, and his cabbage was, remember, not originally bred for cultivation.

His stomach didn’t feel great after, Jansson confessed— “as if I had spicy food at an Indian restaurant.” But CRISPR, he suggested, could help with that.

I'm not seeing the point. He removed a gene, calling that process CRISPR instead of the dreaded GMO. It sounds genetically modified. It's modifying a gene. It sounds like he's getting around the FDA classification at the moment because he's not adding any DNA?

The environmentalists are already in a rage about it. Scientists aren't backing it. He got sick over his own creation.

The commercial prospects for this don't look good.