The EPSO Board decided last year to constitute a WoGr to call attention to how the science that its members are producing may have an impact on agriculture. Agriculture will have to meet important demands in the near future. The production of sufficient, safe and healthy food for an increasing human population is a huge challenge. But this production also has to meet the need for a reduced impact of agriculture in a changing environment.
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Everyone working in plant biology is aware of the significant advances in our knowledge of plant development, interactions of plants with other organisms — particularly pathogens, and the control of metabolic pathways. New methodologies are being developed to study plants both at molecular and cellular levels and as whole organisms or populations in the field. We are convinced that these methods and the information that we are obtaining from them will have, sooner or later, significant effects on agriculture. Agriculture has always been based on the best technologies available at a given moment. For instance, recent research on plant genetics has shown the genetic basis of the selection of species and variants that led to domestication of present crops. Plants were among the first species selected for the studies that led to the birth of genetics and during the last century plant breeding provided the basis for the present levels of food production. It is also clear that other technologies provided fertilisers, pesticides, allowed the irrigation of new lands and the mechanisation of agriculture. A number of technologies are already having an impact in plant breeding:
Next to this, increasing awareness and provide an actual overview and access to Risk Assessment (RA) and Regulatory Issues (RI) of new agricultural technologies, including genetic engineering, also belongs to the activities of the WoGr. FA and RI influence the daily work and lives of researchers involved in new biotechnologies – such as new plant breeding techniques: Zinc finger nuclease technology; oligonucleotides directed mutagenesis; reverse breeding or Agro-infiltration. Often this area is of small concern to relative newcomers in the field of research, yet the productive outcome of research is guided and often thwarted by regulations. The group aims to address this significant area, directly related to research and placing on the market. Main tasks are to: increase awareness of RA and RI amongst EPSO members, provide an actual overview on and access to RA and RI documents for EPSO members, and flag up necessary actions
Activity: paper
Communications:
Contact: Pere Puigdomenech; Maurice Moloney; Joachim Schiemann