"Rollback of GMO Regulations" for Food and Fibre Crops

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2021) | Viewed by 6699

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
RJR Agriculture Consultants, 62 Schier Drive, Horsham, VIC 3401, Australia
Interests: plant breeding; genetic resources; agronomy; farming systems; food security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

By 2050, at which point the human population is expected to have grown to beyond 9 billion, a 70–100% increase in food production is needed, even as the world continues to warm and have more abiotic and biotic stresses impacting crop production.

Crop improvement will face increasing challenges from climate change, and crops will need to be more resilient. Introgression of heat, frost, and drought tolerances into crops from crop wild relatives with genome editing is a key strategy for plant and agricultural scientists and requires a rollback of GMO regulation for rapid uptake and implementation.

Genome editing offers a more precise and easier means of modifying plant genomes than previously, enabling linkage drag of unwanted DNA to be excluded, and provides new opportunities for manipulation of gene expression. Options include switching genes on or off, base pair insertion or deletion, epigenetic changes, and interspecific DNA transfer.

However, GMO crops/microbes for the production of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other medicinals for humans and animals should be separated into a different category and must remain subject to GMO regulatory risk assessment for their impact on health and on the environment.

Dr. Robert J. Redden
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • climate change
  • global warming
  • population
  • genome editing
  • regulation
  • genetic modification
  • education
  • food chain
  • food safety
  • environment benefits
  • trade implications
  • green lobby scientific evidence
  • GMO
  • adventitious contamination
  • segregation
  • temperature tolerance
  • frost tolerance
  • drought tolerance
  • salininity tolerance
  • tolerance mineral toxicity/deficiency
  • gene stacking

Published Papers (1 paper)

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11 pages, 283 KiB  
Opinion
Genetic Modification for Agriculture—Proposed Revision of GMO Regulation in Australia
by Robert Redden
Plants 2021, 10(4), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10040747 - 11 Apr 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6131
Abstract
Genetic engineering (GM) of crops, modified with DNA transfer between species, has been highly regulated for over two decades. Now, genome editing (GE) enables a range of DNA alterations, from single base pair changes to precise gene insertion with site-directed nucleases (SDNs). Past [...] Read more.
Genetic engineering (GM) of crops, modified with DNA transfer between species, has been highly regulated for over two decades. Now, genome editing (GE) enables a range of DNA alterations, from single base pair changes to precise gene insertion with site-directed nucleases (SDNs). Past regulations, established according to the precautionary principle of avoiding potential risks to human health and the environment, are predicated on fears fanned by well-funded and emotional anti-GM campaigns. These fears ignore the safety record of GM crops over the last 25 years and the benefits of GM to crop productivity, disease and pest resistance, and the environment. GE is now superseding GM, and public education is needed about its benefits and its potential to meet the challenges of climate change for crops. World population will exceed 9 billion by 2050, and world CO2 levels are now over 400 ppm in contrast with a pre-industrial 280 ppm, leading to a projected 1.5 °C global warming by 2050, with more stressful crop environments. The required abiotic and biotic stress tolerances can be introgressed from crop wild relatives (CWR) into domestic crops via GE. Restrictive regulations need to be lifted to facilitate GE technologies for sustainable agriculture in Australia and the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue "Rollback of GMO Regulations" for Food and Fibre Crops)
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