We urgently need legal certainty to support innovation in plant breeding in the EU, writes Arjen van Tunen. Agriculture and crop improvement via plant breeding has defined our civilisation since the days when humans turned grass into grain and evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers. The crop plants we grow and eat today are significantly different from their wild ancestors. Their edible parts are typically much larger, with higher yields, and are much more attractive to the consumers.
Especially during the last 50 years, plant breeding has advanced into a high-tech sector that feeds our modern world. Amid climate change, population growth, and other food challenges, such as malnutrition and food crises, even more must be done to greatly improve agriculture and plant breeding to sustainably meet society’s needs for the future.
I would like to continue on this innovation path in plant breeding and stimulate Europe and European leaders to embrace new genome editing methods for the improvement of our crops for the future.
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