International Animal Biotech Webinars Wrap Up for 2020

ISAAA along with co-organizers Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, and Virginia Tech concluded this year's seven-session on the Webinar Series on Regulatory Approaches for Agricultural and Food Applications of Animal Biotechnology on December 3, 2020, with the final online plenary meeting held to list down the challenges in communication and training faced by different countries when implementing or developing a framework for animal biotechnology.

Prior to the plenary meeting, breakout sessions were also held the day before. The participating representatives of different countries were divided into four groups according to the region and one group solely for young professionals in the agriculture industry. The regional groups included Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East; North America and Europe; and Asia and Oceania. Each group had a designated moderator from the organizers who facilitated the discussion about how their respective country responds to engagement and communication challenges among technology developers, regulators, the government, consumers, farmers, and other beneficiaries in order to promote acceptance of animal biotechnology regulations and its products. Also discussed were the roles of each stakeholder and the training they need to enhance their capacity to engage in international trade and in intellectual property rights for inter-country regulations of animal biotech products. The points identified during the breakout session were presented during the final plenary meeting with a representative of each group presenting their output. Session 7 allowed the participants to learn from the experiences of their co-participants, facilitators, and the resource persons in order to come up with an expanded list of requirements that need to be met in order for all countries to be prepared in international and local animal biotech regulations and trade.

The online animal biotech discourses will continue in 2021. To find out how you can join to represent your country, contact mkarembu@isaaa.org.