Expert Underscores Improving Global Acceptance for Gene-edited Crops

Regulatory bodies, the media, and the public are now exhibiting a growing acceptance of gene-edited crops, according to Dan Jenkins, vice-president of Pairwise, who delivered a talk on gene editing in a webinar hosted by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST).

“Things are progressing really well around the world,” Jenkins said, and provided an overview of the status of regulations for gene-edited crops. He underscored that there is now a global trend toward very low-burden regulations that primarily focus on demonstrating the absence of foreign DNA. Thus, breakthroughs in regulations were observed in South America, Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, and other nations where gene-edited crops are lightly regulated.

Jenkins recommended that flexible regulations must be in place, allowing early-stage submissions, with multiple traits across various lines and varieties of crops.

Read more from The Western Producer and CAST.