An ominous figure was captured by a recent study by scientists from Cornell, Maryland, and Stanford universities, which found that global agricultural productivity has declined by about 21% in the last 60 years as a result of climate change. Add to that the expected population growth over the next decades, and you begin to understand that even with the improvements in yields we have seen over the last few decades, breeders cannot continue to guarantee production for all people, write Rudi Adriaans and Ferdinand Los with Hudson River Biotechnology in Wageningen.
In the EU, the European Commission has pledged itself to the Farm to Fork Strategy, which is centered on organic farming. In this approach, 25% of the EU’s agricultural land will be used for organic farming by 2030. And while the European Commission acknowledges that innovations in areas like biotechnology can play an important role, regulation around novel genomic techniques is still restrictive.
Organic farming can definitely contribute to sustainability, but negative indirect effects such as additional land use needed for this method of farming are often overlooked. An organic farm will have an approximately 50% lower yield in comparison to non-organic farming. Already we see that approximately 16% of global deforestation is linked to consumption in the EU.
Novel breeding techniques have been instrumental in maximizing agricultural productivity, profitability, and sustainability. The technique that has generated the most publicity – culminating in a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna – is CRISPR, which scientists can use to adjust or rewrite DNA in a highly precise manner.
These edits are based on research that has been going on for decades to understand the molecular processes underlying genetic traits. Where these kinds of adjustments would traditionally take between seven and 10 years (if possible at all), they can now be done within two to four years. Owing to this, CRISPR has revolutionized how we can breed plants and make our food systems sustainable in the face of climate change and population growth.
Additionally, these new varieties could decrease water, land, and chemical use in traditional, non-‘organic’ farming practices, too. But our traditional breeding approaches will not get us there in time, and CRISPR offers us the chance to accelerate the development of new varieties. Only with CRISPR can we generate crop varieties that would meet sustainability demands from organic and non-organic farming within the timeframe needed.
We all agree on the urgent need to decrease the strain on our natural ecosystems and keep food production up to par. Such a challenge can only be tackled by developing new crop varieties within a reasonable time frame; that is, within the next 10 years. Only with the best technology available – CRISPR – in the farmer’s toolbox will it be possible to achieve the EU’s ambitious goals for sustainable food systems and prevent negative spillover to our global sustainability goals.
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