Plant Biotech Needs Better Politics to Counter Critics, Encourage Innovation, Build Trust

Plant biotechnology needs better politics to counter well-organized campaigns by environmental groups, encourage innovation, and build public trust in the policies. This is according to Alan Raybould, a genetics expert from The University of Ediburgh. He mentioned this in his commentary published in Transgenic Research.

According to his article, environmental groups have prompted calls to remove politics in the regulatory governance of GM crops. However, regulatory systems are inevitably political because the role of the policies is to guide decisions on the use of GM products. He stressed that better politics starts with political leadership with a focus on attaining food security and other sustainable development goals. The other aspects of better politics mentioned include regulatory reform to set policy objectives and decision-making criteria that promote innovation as well as control risk and public engagement that tackles the values behind attitudes to the application of plant biotechnology.

Read the original article in Transgenic Research.