A holistic and cutting-edge approach to food production: Gene Editing

A considerable shift in crop production will be necessary to provide an adequate supply of food for the ensuing decades in the face of challenges posed by climate change, population growth, and possible food-chain disruptions brought on by pandemics and natural disasters. Crop plant growth in indoor urban farms is one way to lessen disruptions in the food supply. With urbanisation taking place in every nook and cranny of the country, arable land space is diminishing at an alarming rate. Feeding the population will be difficult in such a scenario. Conventional breeding programmes and farming techniques may not be enough. However, just adapting growth techniques from conventional outdoor farming is woefully insufficient. Ineffective food supply systems and harsher crop-growing conditions brought on by climate change are two main contributors.

BetterSeeds, an Israeli business, is harnessing CRISPR technology to address a rising worldwide concern. According to BetterSeeds, the game-changing features it can integrate will enable farmers to cultivate more resistant crops to harsh weather while also being less dangerous and expensive to grow and harvest. The business is now developing extremely nutritious black-eyed peas that are more resistant to climate change than existing legumes farmed for plant-based proteins and will deliver larger yields on the same area of land while requiring less water and fertiliser.
Merck KGaA enters into a partnership and licencing agreement with the Israeli business BetterSeeds to expedite the use of CRISPR in agricultural applications and make it more broadly available. BetterSeeds intends to employ MilliporeSigma's fundamental CRISPR patent portfolio to edit cash crops like cowpea and cannabis to generate and include game-changing characteristics that are now unavailable in many crops owing to conventional breeding restrictions.
A new type of soybeans has been created by multigene bioengineering to absorb light more effectively, increasing yields by up to 25% without sacrificing quality. The scientists behind the breakthrough emphasise that photosynthesis, the natural mechanism plants employ to turn sunlight into energy and yield, is a "quite inefficient 100+ step process."

Food security has always been a top priority for Chinese officials, who must feed around 20% of the world's population while only having 7% of the world's arable land. Chinese scientists have employed gene editing to produce herbicide-resistant rice and lettuce seedlings high in vitamin C.
Pivot Bio, a US soil amendment business, continues to dominate, receiving $430 million in 2021 - the year's highest Ag Biotech round. With a $208 million fundraising, Inari, a US startup creating genetic technologies to promote global seed variety, secured the second biggest transaction.
Ag Biotech solutions have the potential to boost agricultural output while also improving animal health, both of which are critical to global food security. According to the UN Population Division, there will be 9.7 billion people to feed by 2050, or nearly 30% more people than in 2017. Pesticides, herbicides, and other inputs can help reduce crop losses, but at a high environmental and human health cost. Ag Biotech businesses that discover less-harmful biological alternatives have major potential.
Plantik is using genome-editing technologies to accelerate the development of novel plant types. It has made effective genome-editing experiments in hemp and is now working on other crops.

To produce enough food for a growing global population, combat climate change, reduce food waste, and produce more nutrient-dense crops, gene editing is not a luxury but a need.