{"id":876,"date":"2023-02-13T22:14:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T22:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growersforbiotechnology.org\/?p=876"},"modified":"2023-02-13T22:24:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T22:24:52","slug":"viewpoint-global-crop-biotechnology-revolution-2022-saw-dramatic-advances-in-agricultural-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growersforbiotechnology.org\/2023\/02\/13\/viewpoint-global-crop-biotechnology-revolution-2022-saw-dramatic-advances-in-agricultural-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Viewpoint: Global crop biotechnology revolution \u2014 2022 saw dramatic advances in agricultural innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conquest, war, famine, and death: Looking back on 2022 as the COVID-19 plague roars into its fourth year, the\u00a0Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse\u00a0have all been well exercised. But though there was much to be dismayed about, all was\u00a0not gloomy, and there were indicators of an important sea change.<\/p>\n

In the past year, after decades of\u00a0unwarranted\u00a0delay,\u00a0Golden Rice\u00a0was\u00a0planted\u00a0in the Philippines,\u00a0harvested and eaten, and approval is now being sought to grow it in\u00a0India. The\u00a0cynical opposition campaign\u00a0has finally been overcome, and the world will be a\u00a0better place\u00a0for it. But this is just one part of a larger story.<\/p>\n

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Credit: PANAP<\/p>\n

While crops improved through biotechnology have become the\u00a0new normal\u00a0for\u00a0agriculture\u00a0in most of the developed world (except Europe\u2014more on that to follow), the African continent has lagged conspicuously. Economic and political\u00a0pressure from Europe, magnified by\u00a0disinformation\u00a0and\u00a0fear\u00a0spread by European \u201cgreen\u201d groups, contributed to decades of delay in developing the necessary political and bureaucratic acceptance. But in 2022 Africans\u00a0raised\u00a0their\u00a0voices\u00a0to\u00a0demand access\u00a0to the same seeds and technologies that have proven so\u00a0productive\u00a0and\u00a0valuable\u00a0elsewhere, and sluggish governments have begun to\u00a0move.<\/p>\n

Ghana approved its first commodity crop for human consumption, a biotech-improved (\u201cGM\u201d) insect-resistant\u00a0cowpea, and is pursuing biotechnology to\u00a0reduce pesticide\u00a0use and augment\u00a0aquaculture. Nigeria has now approved a total of\u00a029 biotech improved crops\u00a0including\u00a0potatoes, cotton, maize, soybean, and wheat, donning the mantle of a \u201crole model\u201d for African agriculture, pursuing its own\u00a0self-interest, and\u00a0rejecting\u00a0the European approach. Even Zambia, long a\u00a0rejectionist stronghold, is moving to embrace the technology and expand its use into\u00a0livestock improvement. And Ethiopian farmers are planting Bt cotton\u00a0illegally smuggled\u00a0from Sudan, continuing the tradition of\u00a0civil disobedience\u00a0established by farmers in Brazil and India. Pockets of\u00a0resistance\u00a0persist, but the\u00a0African\u00a0sun is\u00a0setting\u00a0on the anti-GM flavor of European\u00a0green imperialism.<\/p>\n

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In 2022 over 1.3 milllion Zambians were severely food insecure. Credit: OCHA<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Latin America is well down the road toward becoming an independent center of innovation in agricultural biotechnology. Chile, long a\u00a0global powerhouse\u00a0for counter-seasonal multiplication of biotech-improved seeds, is rapidly embracing gene editing to make crops\u00a0resilient to climate change. Bolivia\u00a0sees the benefits\u00a0of biotechnology and is exploring\u00a0how to relax unwarranted regulatory burdens. Colombian\u00a0seed producers\u00a0and\u00a0farmers oppose\u00a0restrictive regulations while early adopter and major producer Argentina has updated and\u00a0streamlined\u00a0its regulations. Mexico is rapidly\u00a0backpedaling\u00a0on a stated\u00a0intention\u00a0to ban biotech-improved corn and glyphosate, amid\u00a0dire\u00a0forecasts\u00a0of the\u00a0damage\u00a0that would result. And Brazil, firmly in the rank of\u00a0world\u00a0leaders, is rapidly moving toward deploying\u00a0biotech-improved wheat,\u00a0gene-edited soy, and more.<\/p>\n

In Asia, China, an early adopter and\u00a0beneficiary\u00a0of biotech-improved\u00a0cotton, is cautiously moving to embrace biotech as a\u00a0tool to improve food self-sufficiency, with President Xi Jinping defining it as one of the \u201ccore technologies\u201d that cannot be left to the free market, requiring leadership from the Chinese government. Japan has had a functional regulatory system more reasonable than most for years, and brought\u00a0gene-edited tomatoes\u00a0to market this year while expanding the technology\u00a0into aquaculture. This has happened even as Japanese media have begun to\u00a0push back\u00a0against fear-based marketing from the organic industry. With leadership\u00a0from the top, Indonesia is rapidly moving to\u00a0exploit biotech-improved soybeans. And India is struggling to overcome bureaucratic chaos and\u00a0approve GM mustard\u00a0and\u00a0numerous additional\u00a0crops to\u00a0build\u00a0on the conspicuous successes of Indian farmers with\u00a0Bt cotton.<\/p>\n

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Bayer\u2019s cotton claims resistance to several common cotton pests. Credit: Bayer<\/p>\n

And in the biggest development of all, resistance to biotech-improved crops in Europe is crumbling. Determined\u00a0not to repeat\u00a0with gene editing the disastrous, self-inflicted injuries from their misguided regulation of genetic engineering, European scientists have been increasingly vocal in recent years arguing for a different, science-based approach. Here is a stochastic sample of items that have appeared in recent months:<\/p>\n