Processes for regulating genetically modified and gene edited plants

Abstract

Innovation in agriculture has been essential in improving productivity of crops and forages to support a growing population, improving living standards while contributing toward maintaining environment integrity, human health, and wellbeing through provision of more nutritious, varied, and abundant food sources. A crucial part of that innovation has involved a range of techniques for both expanding and exploiting the genetic potential of plants. However, some techniques used for generating new variation for plant breeders to exploit are deemed higher risk than others despite end products of both processes at times being for all intents and purposes identical for the benefits they provide. As a result, public concerns often triggered by poor communication from innovators, resulting in mistrust and suspicion has, in turn, caused the development of a range of regulatory systems. The logic and motivations for modes of regulation used are reviewed and how the benefits from use of these technologies can be delivered more efficiently and effectively is discussed.

The Adoption of Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: the Public’s Current Perception, the Regulatory Obstacles, and Ethical Challenges

“… 7 , 15 Farmers face uncertainty when it comes to implementing GM crops in agriculture because of the uneven regulations that hinder the uniform application of GMOs. 39 , 61 Although they are from the same regions, East African nations like Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, for instance, have varying laws governing the use of GM crops. At the moment, Tanzania and Uganda oppose the use of GM crops for improving agricultural yields while Kenya does.…”

Genome-wide atlas of rust resistance loci in wheat

“…A proof-of-concept study transferred five- Sr -gene cassettes into wheat to achieve high levels of field resistance to stem rust (Luo et al 2021 ). Restrictions in many countries concerning the regulation of wheat classified as genetically modified (GM) are possibly the biggest barrier to widespread adoption of these tools (Caradus 2023 ).…”