Agriculture Innovation, Organic Farming and Gene Editing: The Way Forward

Abstract

This brief note intends to make a very limited contribution on a particular aspect of the debate on the new biotechnologies in agriculture, namely the opening or not of organic farming to such technologies. The aim of the work is not to provide an exhaustive account of the ongoing debate, which would in any case be impossible in the limited space available, but to focus attention on some aspects of the issue that seem to be particularly relevant for taking a clear position on how to regulate the new technologies in organic farming.Our commentary develops by presenting the following three topics: the promises and risks of gene editing and regulatory models; the position of organic farmers' associations; the identification of some real data and key principles useful to draw regulatory guidelines for biotechnological innovation in the organic sector. Gene editing: applications, risks and regulationThe early genome editing systems involved ODM (oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis) TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases) and ZFNs (zinc finger nucleases). These technologies gave raise to limited applications because of their transfection inefficiency and design complexity. Currently, the dominant genome editing is the CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR associated proteins) due to its efficiency, precision and wide application range. While biomedical and clinical applications seem to be very promising yet still in their infancy, with many safety issues still to be clarified, applications in the agriculture are rapidly growing, with far less safety concerns [2]. The main advantage of CRISPR technology is the possibility of dramatically reducing time in animal and crop breeding programs till a as few as 2-3 years. As a consequence, the introduction of many new traits and functions can be easily experimented and quickly released on the market, with lower financial risks for the companies involved in the innovation programs.So far, many applications have been featured, with some already in an advanced stage of experimentation, but only a few already on the market. With respect to crops five areas of innovation are being explored [3]: Crimson PublishersWings to the Research