Climate change, geopolitical conflicts, rising energy and fertilizer prices are putting pressure on farmers around the world. They must increase production and efficiency to guarantee food safety while reducing environmental impact. According to the United Nations, more than 800 million people no longer have access to healthy and affordable food, and the number of people severely affected by food insecurity has doubled to 345 million since 2020. At the same time, climate change is causing a continuous rise in average temperatures. Drought and other extreme events are becoming more frequent, allowing pests and diseases to gain a foothold in new areas.

Farmers are doing their best to produce good crops despite these challenging conditions, but there is a growing call for better, innovative, science-based farming technologies. One of the most promising is genome editing, driven by the CRISPR-Cas method introduced in 2012, known as ‘genetic scissors’. This Nobel Prize-winning technology has long since been shelved. But things are changing: last July, the European Commission announced a review of its rules on new breeding methods (NTMs) in agriculture. In Switzerland, the parliament has instructed the Federal Council by mid-2024 at the latest to submit a draft law for a risk-based authorization framework for NTS-derived plants that do not incorporate transgenic genetic material. inserted.

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