The push for better traits can stretch beyond commercial cultivars of staple crops like maize and wheat, and instead focus on local crops and benefit farmers that grow them. Even with reduced regulation, however, it will still be a challenge to get those cis-edited crops to the people who would benefit most from the enhanced nutritional profiles and climate-tolerance traits.

A handful of companies are jumping at these opportunities. In 2021, the non-profit Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) launched a series of projects that are applying genome-editing technologies to plants important to the developing world, such as rice, cassava, sorghum and broccoli.

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Another non-profit, Semilla Nueva, is working with researchers to produce biofortified corn, regarded as a cheap and productive crop in many lower- to middle-income countries, although it is limited in nutrients.

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Gene-edited crops seem poised to step in and succeed where GM crops floundered. Free from regulatory obstruction and public disapproval, the power of agricultural biotech could be harnessed to better the planet and our own health. This will require collaboration between large seed companies and non-profits, governments and farmers, but it is important to think about long term, big-picture humanitarian goals, much as everybody loves the taste of a $400 pineapple.

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