M&M’s Maker Turns to Gene Editing in Bid to Secure Cocoa Supply

Mars Inc. is tapping gene-editing technology that could speed up the development of hardier cocoa plants — part of the company’s efforts to ensure continued supplies of the crucial crop.

The maker of Dove chocolate and M&M’s is entering into a licensing agreement with Pairwise, an agricultural gene editing firm, in order to accelerate the development of plants with desirable traits, according to a statement. Under the agreement, Mars gets access to Pairwise’s CRISPR tools, which allow scientists to modify organisms’ DNA sequences.