Agricultural Biotech

Biden's new executive order bears the hallmarks of somebody who has been around the block and noticed all the things bureaucracies can do to delay, disrupt, and derail a president’s policies whether through ineptitude, inertia, or mischievous intent.

On February 7–8 a small group of researchers met at the National Academy of Sciences for an informal workshop on how to demonstrate proof of concept for biotech solutions to climate change and start to flesh out plans to implement them at scale. Here’s what they proposed.

The European Commission is considering how to regulate products derived from gene editing and has solicited public comment, but the Commission missing a golden opportunity—again.

Russian aggression in Ukraine means “hunger will haunt the world.” Recent increases in our understanding of biology have given us the most powerful tools we’ve ever had to address the challenges we face. But they are impeded by regulatory policies driven by fear rather than informed by science and experience.

Wild salmon are in trouble worldwide. Many Pacific and Atlantic populations have disappeared or declined to record lows. But recent advances in biotechnology can play an important role in conserving wild salmon while simultaneously increasing the availability and quality of farmed salmon—an important and valued food for humans with enormous cultural significance.

There are multiple opportunities to advance solutions to major societal challenges by fostering transatlantic cooperation in biotech policy. But developing and applying them will require a return to science-based regulation that advances safety while enabling, not deterring innovation.

At the same time that biotechnology advances are reshaping tools for public health and medicine, we see no less momentous innovations in other fields. Almost no sector is untouched, but the greatest flowering to date has arguably been in agriculture.

Biotechnology cannot solve the whole climate problem on its own, but unlike nuclear fusion, which has been “30 years off” for the last 50 years, bioengineered innovations have already transformed agriculture. With gene-editing, doubling agricultural productivity by 2050 is well within reach.

The major limitation on what gene editing might accomplish would seem to be the power of human imagination.

The latest book in the heavily populated “Monsatan” genre apparently adds little or nothing to the many similar tomes that have gone before, and given its late arrival is of dubious relevance. But a review of it in The Washington Post perpetuates a host of imaginary monsters that deserve to rest in peace.