Gene editing is just advanced plant breeding

Gene editing is simply the latest development in the evolution of plant breeding, the head of the American Seed Trade Association said at ASTA's annual meeting today in Chicago, seeking to reassure consumers about the safety and efficacy of the new technique. “The farmer's constantly looking to grow more using less,” LaVigne said. “Farmers need that variety of seed choices to solve their local needs, to manage changing weather, to fight plant disease and pests and wisely use crop inputs and those natural resources.”He cautioned, however, that regulatory barriers that have effectively prevented land grant universities from conducting biotech research could be applied to gene editing, which he said “would be a shame.”Juliet Marshall, a professor of cereals agronomy and plant pathology at the University of Idaho, said gene editing could be used to control, or at least reduce the impacts of, fusarium head blight (FSM), known more commonly as head scab.