Reducing the regulatory burden of plant biotechnology in Canada

Regulations within the crop agriculture industry exist to ensure that products undergoing risk assessment prior to commercialization are safe for the environment and human consumption. Since 1995, these regulations have provided safe crops and foods for Canadians to consume, as no commercialized innovative product has caused any post-commercialization health or environmental problems. However, Canada suffers from a gap in its innovation pipeline in that far more investments go into the innovation pipeline than products come out. Canada is a global top ten nation in terms of innovation investments yet drops over ten positions when it comes to outputs. Additionally, Canada is one of the lowest ranked on the G30 list of countries in terms of regulatory burden on the economy. This article describes updates to the regulatory framework for plant biotechnology, highlighting recent changes regarding regulation of gene editing technologies and how these changes respond to previously identified innovation barriers.

By Simona Lubieniechi, Savannah Gleim, and Stuart J. Smyth Apr 17, 2025