One thing we have learnt from the GMO debate is that if you simply add layers of regulatory checks and controls, you just end up increasing people’s perceptions of risk, when these breeding techniques are probably safer and more precise than conventional methods.
It is time to be guided by the science, just as we turned to science in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Access to gene editing techniques can deliver step-change improvements in the speed and precision of crop improvement.
As a scientist, who is committed to harnessing genetic knowledge to deliver more sustainable outcomes in food and agriculture, it is difficult for me to understand how anyone campaigning for a better environment could seek to block scientific research using these techniques.
Already research institutes are highlighting promising crop research projects involving gene editing which have not progressed beyond the laboratory or glasshouse, but whose potential it will now be possible to test and confirm in the field.
The focus for much of this research is to help develop crops and farming systems which are less dependent on chemical pesticides and fertilisers, which will subsequently improve food safety and nutritional quality, and which can reduce the climate impact of agriculture.
