Meeting the urgent need for food for a growing global population will require the use of all types of plant breeding, including biotechnology, according to an editorial in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

“Even more importantly, it will necessitate a reemphasis on innovation, greater diversification of the agrochemical and agbiotech industry, streamlining and harmonization of regulatory oversight, and an end to the political grandstanding that has characterized the agbiotech debate so far,” said the article in a publication of Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.

Biotechnology is safe and should be fully deployed, the editorial states.

“There is no scientific uncertainty about whether crops generated via transgenesis are riskier than conventionally produced varieties,” it says.  “They simply are not!  And thus regulatory oversight should be reined in, not ramped up.” Read more.