Progress has a hard time on the old continent. The most recent example is the continuing blockade of new breeding methods. While innovative approaches to plant breeding are playing an increasingly important role in fields and on plates in other regions of the world, in Europe and Switzerland, those with reservations are still making themselves loudly heard. In Switzerland, for example, a popular initiative wants to strictly regulate the new breeding methods.

The initiators apparently sense a major conspiracy by the industry and write on their channels: «The genetic engineering companies are putting massive pressure on Parliament and the Federal Council: they are lobbying for the strict rules on the use of genetic engineering to be weakened.» The reality can be summarised as follows: An overwhelming majority of researchers at public research institutes in our country who are involved in plant breeding have long and audibly been in favour of liberal regulation of new breeding methods. And they have been successful: Parliament has asked the Federal Council to set out what such authorisation should look like in the future. The Federal Council's report should be published this year.

The current initiative should be seen against this background. Attempts are now being made to generate political pressure after failing to get through parliament. A majority of parliamentarians favoured scientific evidence. And the media are also increasingly in favour of the new breeding methods. That is encouraging.

Among opponents, «follow the science» clearly plays no role. They would rather continue to play on diffuse fears. It is to be hoped that the Federal Council will propose a bold solution that is based on scientific evidence and thus also creates a regulatory environment in Switzerland that is conducive to the further development of innovative breeding in this country.

The same applies to Europe. Liberalisation is also lagging behind there. It is true that the EU Commission has introduced such a liberalisation. However, the political process has also stalled there, with individual member states still standing in the way.

Doubters drive innovation away

What is clear, however, is that innovation is not waiting for the doubters in Europe and Switzerland. Innovative breeding is increasingly taking place elsewhere. The major agricultural markets such as the USA, Brazil and China are leading the way. In China, a genome-edited wheat was approved for cultivation in May 2024. The wheat is more disease-resistant and promises higher yields. Overall, China is a leader in the development of genome-edited crops: 509 of the 900 breeding projects known worldwide at the end of May 2024 came from the Middle Kingdom, reports the scienceindustries point newsletter. «The key breeding objectives include increased yields, disease resistance, stress tolerance and improved food and feed quality.» In the USA and Brazil, genome-edited seeds are not considered genetically modified and are therefore not subject to strict regulation. No wonder companies are increasingly concentrating their research in these countries. This is because applied research also requires field trials – and these are far too expensive in Switzerland with its single, highly guarded «protected site». As the «Handelszeitung» writes in a major overview article on the subject of genome editing, Syngenta, for example, is opening a new research facility in the USA. And is currently expanding its research centre for plant breeding in Beijing, which has been in existence since 2008. Other companies are following suit. Switzerland and Europe are falling further and further behind. This is a shame, as the old continent traditionally has a lot to offer when it comes to plant breeding. Beat Keller's research group at the University of Zurich, for example, has achieved a leading position in the development of disease-resistant wheat using classical genetic engineering.

Politicians in Bern and Brussels would do well to listen to science and finally allow new breeding methods to be used. Local research would benefit from this, as proximity to the market is also good for the scientific environment. Industry would also be incentivised to carry out more research and development in Switzerland. This would be good for Switzerland as a nation of innovation.