Title: Gene Editing is a new plant breeding method of precise elegance

Biography:

Klaus Ammann is a Professor Emeritus University of Bern, Switzerland. He is Director Botanic Garden, University of Berne 1996-2006. He is Editor, Co-Editor in journals from Elsevier, Springer and Landes and Member of scientific committees in Switzerland and Europe on biodiversity and biosafety. Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, external member of the European Academy.

Abstract

Gene Editing is a new plant breeding method of precise elegance. It will be a unique chance to create new crops, adapted to climate change, be more productive and building new sustainable resistance against the steadily growing and adapting crop pests. It will also help to shift modern agriculture to a more ecological production, in short: it is the future of modern agriculture. Opposition against the new breeding methods is often based on fundamentalist arguments which are not really built on science. Anti-GM literature is often full of questionable statistics and fake arguments. This is a great pity, since stigmatization of the new Gene Editing is unfortunately built on the easy going psychology of fear of fake risks, often welcomed by a society in rich countries, where the population desperately longs for new risk fights in a clearly growing safety of personal life. It would be much better to develop a constructive attitude, which could manifest in organo-transgenic agricultural strategies, where the best sides of organic farming and modern breeding built on Gene Editing could be combined without the ideological and commercial hurdles.