Liability for market disruption: challenges facing genetic editing in agriculture

The road ahead, legally, for gene editing in agriculture has various barriers to entry emerging in overseas markets. The liability landscape in the USA could make such overseas trade barriers, when they disrupt trade, into billion-dollar liability lawsuits here in the USA. The recent Syngenta litigation over China disruption sets a high standard for seeking regulatory approval that many companies may find daunting. Given the high costs and delays that could now be associated with regulatory approval, the benefits of this technology could be denied to a waiting public. Unfounded fears and misguided notions of sustainability in agriculture, which exclude gene editing in agriculture, could also play a part in denying the benefits of this technology. These challenges could take a generation or longer to correct. Outreach to key stakeholders overseas might allow this technology to gain acceptance, if it can avoid the stigma often associated with “GMOs” in foreign markets.