18.02.2022
With honesty to more sustainability
Dear reader,
Plant breeding is crucial for successful agriculture. Varieties have improved, strengthened and been made more resistant. What many people don’t know: Conventional plant breeding relies on radiation and chemicals. That’s how spontaneous, uncontrolled mutations have been triggered since the mid 20thcentury. It is a game of chance. But it can take years or even decades until the right characteristic is found ‘by chance’, according to German Nobel Prize-winner Christine Nüsslein-Volhard in an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She advocates targeted plant breeding through genome editing, even for organic farming. The CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors have real advantages for nature and species conservation. Primarily, genome editing can accelerate plant breeding. Resistant varieties can be made available more quickly, and they are safe. In summary, what the Nobel Prize-winner is saying is clear: “It makes sense to use genetic scissors in organic farming”. She criticises the restrictive legislation in the EU.
Blocking new breeding methods is detrimental to sustainability as well in Switzerland. Targeted breeding also has major benefits for consumers and thus enjoys widespread acceptance: Consumers are more open to new breeding methods than genetic engineering opponents claim. The legislation is in motion in Switzerland. In the spring session, both chambers of the Swiss parliament are discussing a proposal which would allow the cultivation of organisms obtained through targeted breeding under certain conditions. In particular, genes which are foreign to the species may not be introduced into the plants. Opponents of the new law have been repeating the same mantra-like argument for years: There are no applications for it. But is that the case? swiss-food.ch has put together ten applications for new breeding methods. The fact is that farmers need new varieties which are more resistant to heat or wet conditions and can continue to deliver high yields despite difficult conditions.
For wheat, the examples range from rain-tolerant to mildew-resistant varieties and wheat with improved tolerance to drought. Even potatoes can benefit from targeted breeding if they are made to be resistant to leaf and bulb blights. Spraying of the heavy metal copper can then be replaced. This is particularly relevant in organic farming, as there are no other pesticides available to combat these fungi. Another example is apples with improved resistance to fire blight, which is highly contagious and can endanger whole crops. There are also benefits for tomatoes which are resistant to bacterial diseases. Researchers in Spain and France have improved the plants’ immune responses using genetic scissors. And what’s not to like about virus-resistant cucumbers? As a general rule: resistance breeding reduces the requirement for pesticides and saves time and effort for the farmers.
French winemakers have noticed that there are real benefits to targeted breeding. They, too, are in favour of the new breeding methods. Instead of using time-consuming processes to breed new varieties, genetic scissors can be used to optimise those grape varieties which are popular among the consumers. French winemakers are therefore advocating the approval of genome editing in winemaking. Swiss farmers are also starting to think differently. Organic research pioneer Urs Niggli has long been arguing the case for the new breeding methods and Jürg Vollmer, leading agricultural journalist and editor in chief for the Greens, is also among the front runners in the field. He wrote in an article last autumn that precision breeding could usefully combine the advantages of wild and cultivated plants.
The sustainability officer at BASF, Saori Dubourg, is also treading the path towards new breeding methods in a very interesting interview in Die Zeit (content in German). She describes the switch to increased sustainability as a real challenge for the company. “We need to find intelligent links between new approaches to seeds, breeding, pesticides and digitalisation.” And she also provides food for thought: “It would not be possible to feed everybody using organic methods alone, especially if they were not prepared to change their eating habits. [...] The more meat we put on our plates, the more pressure we automatically put on land usage. And organic farming requires substantially more arable land than conventional farming to produce the same yields.”
Sustainability relies on productivity. A lack of productivity in our agriculture increases imports and shifts the pressure on ecosystems elsewhere. This became evident in Switzerland in 2021. Decreased production because of poor weather led to increasing imports. The poor potato harvest had an impact on the production of chips and fries. Yield was down 30 percent from the previous year. What applies to potatoes also applies to onions and carrots. According to the Swiss Vegetable Growers Association, the stock levels of carrots, onions and celery are some 30 percent lower than the three-year average. This was reported in Blick. The picture is gloomier still for beetroot and red cabbage, where stock levels are as much as 50 percent below average. The same applies to honey, where harvests have collapsed compared to the previous year. Swiss honey is in short supply in supermarkets. This is reflected in increasing prices. Dairy and wheat products have been particularly badly hit by price hikes.
Economical troubles for farmers are a problem for sustainability. Sustainability has an economic component and a social one. This is reflected in the UN’s development targets. Shortages of agricultural goods endanger sustainable development. “You can’t go green if the numbers are red” applies to companies too. Sustainability needs to be comprehensive. And sustainable business models need to survive against the backdrop of global challenges. We can see the impact of climate change on our lives all over the world. In the third episode of the Bayer ‘Headlines of the Future’ podcast, Jess Bunchek, a botanist from the NASA Kennedy Space Center, and Dr Klaus Kunz, sustainability and agriculture expert at Bayer, discuss the links between climate change and agriculture. To summarise: Agriculture must be part of the solution. You cannot get real sustainability without productive agriculture. And the key to this is innovation. Targeted breeding can play an important role.
The swiss-food editorial team
