Governing the Unknown: Regulating Future Technologies

This chapter examines how governance structures and regulatory frameworks can respond to emergent new breeding techniques. We discuss how the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Precautionary Principle continue to shape regulatory systems. Recent developments in the EU’s approach to regulating future biotechnologies are examined. The complex patent, licensing, and freedom to operate landscape for CRISPR and other gene editing technologies is explored. Looking ahead, we argue that using deliberative elements of governance helps stakeholders better identify opportunities and respond to future, unknown technologies that may offer benefits to the challenges facing agricultural food production in the twenty-first century.