In the editorial of Terra e Vita n. 16/2024 Mario Pezzotti applauds the synergistic work of researchers, institutions and stakeholders to arrive at the first field experimentation of a plant obtained with assisted evolution techniques. But he warns that we must persist with research and invest to support it
May 13, 2024 is a historic date for Italian researchers involved in agricultural genetics. After six years spent in “confinement” in a phytotron – a small room illuminated with artificial light in the laboratories of the University of Milan – the brusone-resistant rice resulting from assisted evolution technologies (Tea) obtained by the group of researchers coordinated by Vittoria Brambilla and Fabio Fornara was finally planted in an experimental field.
Preview of Earth and Life 16/2024
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We owe a great success to the dialogue between scientists, operators in the agricultural sector, political decision makers and communicators. But the path was not easy. For a long time the actors involved – scientists first and foremost – struggled to talk to each other and reach a consensus, often due to mindset and different strategies. In the end, common sense, practicality and the great desire to put to the ground – in a literal sense – all the efforts made over the last ten years in the laboratories, conferences and plenary meetings of stakeholdersr agricultural, and, last but not least, in commissions and parliamentary chambers. Equally useful was the dialogue between scientists and stakeholders in the agricultural sector, who facilitated and encouraged the process of political decision which concluded with Senator De Carlo’s amendment to the drought decree and the simplified possibility of submitting authorization notifications. Special thanks to the scientific journalist Giovanni Carrada, who helped us develop a communication strategy and coined the term “assisted evolution technologies”, which well describes the nature and objectives of agricultural plant editing.
In short, we have put to the ground – this time in a figurative sense – the best of Italian ingenuity without wasting it in useless competitions and misunderstandings between the various categories. Congratulations to everyone!
This solemn and deserved self-celebration, however, clashes with what could have happened, but did not happen, in Brusselss. Given the favorable vote of the European Parliament on 7 February 2024 on the proposal for the new regulation on TEA (in Europe New Genomic Techniques – Ngt), the Belgian presidency of the EU Council did not consider it a priority to complete the approval process in this legislature. We will start again with the new Parliament, in the meantime let’s hold on to the vote of the plenary session.
Preview of Earth and Life 16/2024
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Now it would be useful to experiment in the field with as many Teas obtained in the laboratories as possible and to start a relevant and inclusive research project coordinated by Masaf as soon as possible, with the aim of obtaining Tea plants for use in Italian agriculture. The research laboratories are preparing the authorization notifications but it still takes time to submit them, because it is necessary to have all the data requested by the competent authority. Soon there will be requests for tomato, vine, wheat, but an extension of another year is needed, at least until the end of 2025, for the submission of notifications. As for the research project, Masaf shows high sensitivity to the topic, but it is necessary to act quickly with adequate resources to finance, in an adequate proportion, both basic research projects and those with a high level of technological maturity.
In summary: we must do even more and better, to come first as promoters of genetic innovation for agricultural sustainability in Europe and as the number of agricultural plant prototypes tested and ready for cultivation. The road ahead will be exciting if we are able to avoid the mistakes of the past and manage to bring into the field the best of Tea seeds and plants obtained from the research activity of Italian agricultural geneticists.
Of Mario Pezzotti
Professor of Agricultural Genetics at the University of Verona
