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This week, longtime food and ag tech entrepreneur and investor Dave Friedberg announced on Twitter<\/a> that he has taken on the role of CEO of agtech startup specializing in gene editing Ohalo Genetics. Ohalo, which has been operating underground for the past four years, began its life within Friedberg’s investment and start-up incubator The Productivity Board.<\/p>\n From Friedberg’s tweet<\/a>:<\/p>\n “@excuse<\/a> uses genetic engineering to completely rethink agriculture, creating new varieties of large crops that were not possible before, greatly increasing yields and productivity, ultimately helping farmers to produce more food using less land, resources, and money. After experiencing great success recently, I now believe @excuse<\/a> it may become one of the most important businesses in the world and I will be dedicated to achieving its potential.\u201d<\/p>\n The move comes a decade after Friedberg sold his first agtech business, Climate Corporation, to Monsanto for $1.1 billion. The sale of The Climate Corp was a milestone in the broader ag tech space as it marked the first time ag tech went on sale for more than a billion dollars. <\/p>\n Since Friedberg took over Ohalo, the company has begun to lift the veil of secrecy. The timing of the decision to come out of the dark (and Friedberg’s takeover) is likely related to Ohalo’s recent win in the form of positive results from the USDA’s Regulatory Status Reviews (RSRs) of the company’s work on genetically modified potatoes. <\/p>\n An RSR is a request submitted to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to request that a product, in this case a genetically modified crop in the form of a potato, not be regulated. Ohalo had two RSRs for its potatoes this year, one focused on the high concentration of beta carotene – which improves the health and nutritional value of potatoes – and the other leads to a decrease in the content of glucose and fructose in potatoes, which, according to Ohalo, will reduce the negative effects that lead to serious deterioration during cold storage of potatoes.<\/p>\n In both cases, the USDA’s APHIS agreed with Ohalo, essentially giving the green light for the product to go ahead for sale and use within the US without additional oversight under 7 CFR part 340, the section of the Plant Protection Act of 2000 that gives the USDA oversight of genetically modified foods. <\/p>\n In the case of Ohalo’s approval (and other approvals under 7 CFR part 340), the USDA states that changes in the product introduced using genetic editing tools were possible through cultivation and that the risks introduced by the changes were less important from a plant risk perspective than those introduced by traditional methods of crop cultivation. <\/p>\n Ohalo joins a group of genetic engineering companies that have emerged in recent years as tools like CRISPR Cas9 have matured and are enabling breakthroughs in agriculture, healthcare, and pharma. While some ag-focused gene editing startups like Pairwise and Yield10 Bioscience have received significant funding over the past half-decade or so, the road to commercialization has been slow for many and difficult for others. Benson Hill, a gene-editing startup valued at a billion dollars just two years ago, has begun looking at strategic alternatives as it lays off employees. <\/p>\n As for the Production Board, where Friedberg has spent most of his time in the past few years as he invests in and develops food and ag tech concepts in various areas from gene editing to bioreactors to beverage printing, he says he will continue to sit on other boards, while his team continues the investment work he was involved in before today. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big change for me personally, I haven’t been a CEO for 7+ years.. but the results are mind blowing @excuse<\/a> the team succeeded in making this decision useless,” said Friedberg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n