Since the turn of the millennium, this ratio has increased considerably.”. Plant Breeding Vital to the Economy, Environment Productivity Growth. European Commission. 2.0. The Likert-scale is one of the most used and reliable scales to measure opinions and underlying motives of behavior (Burns and Bush, 2008). That’s because, due to plant breeding innovations, the EU has been able to prevent natural habitat from being turned into farmland. The approval process can also add substantial costs. 75, 2310–2315. J. Agr. About 45% of the respondents agree or strongly agree with the statement “The use of CRISPR-Cas technology plays an important role within the development of the products of our company.” In general, the results show no clear tendency in the current importance of use within the companies across the different seed sectors. Beckmann, V., Soregaroli, C., Wesseler, J. The vast majority of the respondents agree or strongly agree (30.3% and 39.4%, respectively) with the statement in Q8: “The decision of the EU Court of Justice has a negative impact on the investments in CRISPR-Cas technology within the company.” There appears to be a strong negative effect of the decision of the CJEU on the investments in CRISPR-Cas technology. In some species such as tulips, the sepals and petal… Defra supports the UK plant breeding industry on its How to manage the Union’s diversity: the regulation of new plant breeding technologies in Confédération paysanne and Others. Plant Sci. The Dutch seed sector also contributes 60% of applications for plant breeder rights (Government of the Netherlands, 2017), making it a core location for the development of plant reproduction materials in the EU. This is a sensible approach, as it would also avoid the need for labeling products and related problems derived from plants developed by exempted NPBTs. In summary, the regulatory environment effects the costs and benefits of investments in NPBTs. While they most strongly believe regulatory costs outweigh the benefits of CRISPR-Cas (b), on average they disagree that the ruling will negatively affect competitiveness. 68 (1), 182–198. If that is food without mutations, we’re fine with that.” This would, however, only be true for companies who compete within the EU-market. Besides the strong tendency toward agreement with the statement in results of Q9, three respondents specifically expressed their concerns about the competitiveness for the EU. When this is not the case, because of imperfect information and financial considerations, a policy combining ex-ante regulatory standards and ex-post liability systems can improve social welfare (Kolstad et al., 1990). Food processor and retailer non-GMO standards in the US and EU and the driving role of regulations. Nature 560 (7716), 16. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05814-6, Castellari, E., Soregaroli, C., Venus, T. J., Wesseler, J. 10:1597. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01597. Commercial plant breeding in the UK 7 3.0. Copyright © 2019 Wesseler, Politiek and Zilberman. Stringent regulations of GMOs have impacts expanding beyond agriculture. The response to the statement (Q10): “There are equally important alternatives to CRISPR-Cas technology that are now being adopted within the company,” indicates that the substitutability of CRISPR-Cas appears to be rather low. In the summer of 2018, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that on CRISPR-based plant breeding technologies are not immediately exempted from existing EU regulation of GMOs (Purnhagen et al., 2018). The Netherlands, your partner in quality seed (The Hague: Ministry of Economic Affairs). When the substitutability of CRISPR-Cas technique is high, any limiting factors of the EU GMO procedure might be diminished. Food and feed products derived from the use of NPBTs also need to comply, as other food and feed products, with the EU laws on food and feed (Purnhagen, 2019). National Institute of Food and Agriculture. “Informing political debate on the importance of genetic crop improvement for environmental and socio-economic objectives through unbiased quantitative and qualitative data is a must,” she says. The molecular plant breeding has been used for genetic improvement of various field crops (maize, barley, wheat, rice, sorghum, soybean, chick pea, pea, mungbean), vegetable crops, forage crops and fruit crops for various economic characters. The advantage of ex-ante regulatory standards is that potential damage can be reduced before damage actually happens. Plant breeding exploits biodiversity. Nevertheless, the different effect in competitiveness for the micro-sized companies as compared to larger sized companies might, as suggested by one respondent, be due to the initial accessibility of CRISPR-Cas technique. 15 (2), 271–280. One respondent commented for example: “Only a level playing field in the EU is crucial. EU member states’ voting for authorizing genetically engineered crops: a regulatory gridlock. We first develop the theoretical model and elaborate on the different regulatory approaches being used and compare their advantages and disadvantages. Genome editing in potato via CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein delivery. doi: 10.1038/nbt0507-509. The survey measures the attitude of breeding companies towards the ruling of the EU Court of Justice that subjected the use of CRISPR-Cas in the development of new plant varieties under the general EU regulations around GMOs. The relatively technology-intensive sector of vegetable seeds development (Kokcis et al., 2013) expects the strongest negative effects on competitiveness and investments in CRISPR-Cas applications. This has implications for the statistical methods that need to be used in the analysis of the data. “Now we have quantitative data that proves this. Furthermore, one can expect the decision to lead to competitive disadvantage for plant breeding companies. In the additional comments, a respondent from a micro-sized (<10 employees) remarked: “We have no possibilities to use these new techniques and therefore can profit slightly from the EU ban on these techniques.” This level playing field has also been pointed out by an EU market-oriented, large (>250 employees) company as well. In particular, it is being discussed whether or not they should be regulated similarly to genetically modified organisms (GMOS) or non-GMOs, or whether they need special regulations (Eriksson et al., 2019). Only 15.2% of the respondents agreed on having equally important technologies adopted within the company. These concerns relate to the cost of approval procedures and their potential negative impact on competitiveness and firms’ investments in CRISPR-based technologies (Callaway, 2018). Would you like to get the full Thesis from Shodh ganga along with citation details? doi: 10.4300/JGME-5-4-18, Van ‘t Hoog, A. Plant breeding and genetics are powerful tools for increasing plant productivity through development of improved varieties. The role of a German multi-stakeholder standard for livestock products derived from non-GMO feed. Am. The full report can be accessed online at bit.do/plantetp-HFFAResearch. Bejo has been working on a new colour coating for... Part of my job which I love is helping business owners get their content noticed in print and online. “Such science-based information should be widely available and should be a starting point when discussing the future of plant breeding in the EU.”. J. These characteristics make the sector a sensible object of study for a first assessment of the expected effects and implications of the ruling. The genus Brassica is one of 51 genera in the tribe Brassiceae belonging to the crucifer family, and is the economically most important genus within this tribe, containing 37 different species (Gomez-Campo 1980). Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2017: Biotech Crop Adoption Surges as Economic Benefits Accumulate in 22 Years (Ithaca, NY). This way, any severe bias due to a respondent’s lack of knowledge could be identified and possibly corrected, ex post. Resour. Aleksandra Malyska, executive manager for Belgium-based plant sector stakeholder forum Plants for the Future (Plant ETP), says the study will serve as an important tool for the industry. ... Economic Research Service. The micro- and small-sized companies agree the most on average and experience the least negative impact on investments. A tremendous part of this carbon would be released into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 if that land was used for farming,” he says. importance of plant breeders’ rights for the economic success of plant breeding and the value of BSPB’s royalty collection systems for future investment in breeding. The study provides a number of key findings that represent science-based evidence showing the numerous benefits plant breeding is offering to European society, and makes clear the socioeconomic and environmental value of plant breeding in the EU. Consider how plant breeding has touched your farm: Plant breeding brought wheat to the West in 1906 with the variety Marquis paving the way for even more improved varieties. Plant 164, 5. doi: 10.1111/ppl.12731, PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar. Most striking is that the companies in the potato sector on average disagree with the statement Q9, and therefore differ from all other sectors. Some countries even have strict field trial requirements that are often technically infeasible and economically unviable (Kuntz, 2012). Purnhagen, K., Wesseler, J. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Retrieved 30/01/2018. The production and marketing of approved products also faces regulations. annual review of resource economics. Shleifer, A. 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And finalized the contribution, supervised the survey to the Economy, environment Growth.