In a recent speech to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Boyce Thompson Institute professor Georg Jander emphasized the importance of supporting and financing emerging agricultural technologies. In his presentation titled “The Next Agricultural Revolution: Targeted Gene Editing Using CRISPR,” Jander highlighted the transformative impact of CRISPR technologies in agriculture.
Jander was joined by Dan Jenkins from Pairwise and Emily Negrin from Inari, who shared insights into how their companies are using CRISPR gene editing to improve crops. According to Jander, CRISPR offers immense promise for enhancing food security, agricultural sustainability, and crop durability by enabling precise editing of plant genes. This new “green revolution” has the potential to modify crop genes to enhance desirable traits, suppress negative ones or introduce novel characteristics from different species.
Overall, Jander and his colleagues believe that CRISPR technologies have the potential to significantly improve the agricultural industry and help address challenges such as food security and sustainability. They are calling on policymakers to support and fund these emerging technologies to ensure their widespread adoption and integration into farming practices.