Genome Editing and the Future of Farming

Modern animal breeding strategies based on population genetics, molecular tools, artificial insemination, embryo transfer and related technologies have contributed to significant increases in the performance of domestic animals, and are the basis for a regular supply of high quality animal-derived food at acceptable prices. However, the current strategy of markerassisted selection and breeding of animals to introduce novel traits over multiple generations is too pedestrian in responding to unprecedented challenges such as climate change, global pandemics and feeding an anticipated 33% increase in global population in the next three decades. Here, we propose site-specific genome editing technologies as a basis for “directed” or “rational selection” of agricultural traits. The animal science community envisions genome