title: The Role of Public Opinion in Shaping Trajectories of Agricultural Biotechnology.
abstract: Science and technology are not autonomous entities and research trajectories are largely influenced by public opinion. The role of political decisions becomes especially evident in light of rapidly developing new breeding techniques (NBTs) and other genome editing methods for crop improvement. Decisions on how those new techniques should be regulated may not be based entirely on scientific rationale, and even if it is decided that crops produced by NBTs do not fall under the umbrella of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), their commercialization is by no means certain at this time. If and when adopted regulations do not comply with the public's perception of risks, policy makers will find themselves under pressure to ban or restrict the use of the respective products.
authors.affiliation: European Twchnology Platform 'Plants for the Future' Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: aleksandra.malyska@plantetp.eu.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malyska
authors.affiliation: Tin Duck Consulting Chesterfield, St Louis County, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bolla
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Twardowski
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy; D011639:Public Opinion
keywords: genome editing; new breeding techniques; society