Getting acceptance for gene editing

Getting acceptance for gene editing

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology offers recommendations to ensure plant breeding tech continues to benefit agriculture

Reading Time: 2 minutes The rapid pace of change brought by genome editing tools has created many new opportunities for the agri-food industry, but they aren’t without challenges. Regulatory hurdles must be considered, and the tools must benefit society as well as the agriculture industry.



John Laurie and Andre Laroche are co-leading a project to gene edit spring wheat's circadian clock. This is a first for AAFC and results could lead to commercially available wheat with multiple improved characteristics.

Alberta researcher blazes gene editing trail

AAFC launches gene edited wheat trials at Lethbridge research farm

Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s only early spring, but things are already heating up in southern Alberta. Research scientist John Laurie has just planted the federal government’s first plots of gene-edited wheat at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. These lines are grown in a greenhouse after being successfully propagated in growth chambers. Laurie is excited for where his […] Read more





“The biggest challenge is there is less funding year over year. There has been no real increase over the last couple decades, as budgets are held constant while inflation happens. There’s less to go around.”

Where are public sector gene editing projects?

Regulatory differences and lack of funding constrain gene editing in academic research

Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – In 2022, Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced that crop varieties developed with gene editing technology will not be subject to the same regulatory requirements as genetically modified organisms. Though many within the agriculture industry praised the decision as a win for crop breeders, and Canadians more generally, some academic […] Read more

Both of these canola plants were sown on the same day, with this photo taken about four weeks later. The one on the right was grown in a regular greenhouse under natural 12-hour light.

When it comes to new varieties, there’s a need for speed, says breeder

Creating the equivalent of a 22-hour day can speed up variety development by six times

Reading Time: 4 minutes Combining ‘speed breeding’ with new genomic tools will be able to deliver big dividends for farmers in the coming years, says a plant breeder using the accelerated breeding technique. “It really highlights that we can bring these technologies together to improve genetic gain in the crops of the future,” said Lee Hickey, an associate professor […] Read more