Gene Editing

Source: ABP/Bunge

Gene Editing - Plant Breeding

Innovation in plant breeding can allow for faster and more precise results, with significant potential to help overcome crop production challenges and enlarge the portfolio of products available and traded worldwide.  

The fact that different regulatory frameworks are regulating the latest plant breeding tools in different ways is causing legal uncertainty. New plant varieties derived from one technique may be exempt from regulation in one country, whereas they need to be regulated in another country. This legislative uncertainty is of great concern to plant breeders, biotechnology companies and the overall grain trade.

Gafta collaborates with IGTC on policy on plant breeding innovation here and the briefing document here.

WTO – Joint Statement on Precision Breeding

2018: Brazil and 12 other nations, including Argentina, Australia, Canada and the US, issue a joint statement supporting agricultural applications of precision biotechnology, stating that governments should “avoid arbitrary and unjustifiable distinctions between end products (crop traits) derived from precision biotechnology and similar end products, obtained through other production methods.” document here.