The European Commission's Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, under the European Green Deal, acknowledges that innovative techniques, including biotechnology, may play a role in increasing sustainability. At the same time, organic farming will be promoted, and at least 25% of the EU's agricultural land shall be under organic farming by 2030. How can both biotechnology and organic farming be developed and promoted simultaneously to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? We illustrate that achieving the SDGs benefits from the inclusion of recent innovations in biotechnology in organic farming. This requires a change in the law. Otherwise, the planned increase of organic production in the F2F strategy may result in less sustainable, not more sustainable, food systems.

Recent reductions in the public commitment to potato breeding in Sweden, Norway and Finland call for an evaluation of the current situation regarding the commercial basis for, and structure of, potato breeding in these countries. We here review the extent of cultivation, processing and consumption of table potato in Sweden, as well as provide an overview of the potato breeding tools and programmes in the three countries. We then discuss various strategies to provide long-term stability and increase the impact of public potato breeding, based on the similar overall conditions for potato cultivation across the Fennoscandian region. The conclusions are twofold; first, an increased long-term funding of the public potato breeding programmes is necessary to maintain a minimum level of material, and second, a coordination of the breeding activities in the Fennoscandian region would be of great benefit to all involved stakeholders and allow an enhancement of the current national breeding programmes. In addition, we propose a minimum first field year population size for potato breeding.

We discuss options to reform the EU genetically modified organisms (GMO) regulatory framework, make risk assessment and decision-making more consistent with scientific principles, and lay the groundwork for international coherence. The first in a three-part series, this article focuses on reform options related to the scope of the legislation and the GMO definition.

Is the European Union (EU) regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) adequate for emerging techniques, such as genome editing? This has been discussed extensively for more than 10 years. A recent proposal from The Netherlands offers a way to break the deadlock. Here, we discuss how the proposal would affect examples from public plant research.

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are facing huge challenges regarding food insecurity, low agricultural output, and agriculturally incurred environmental degradation. A sustainable and increased crop productivity and diversity is essential to achieve food security in a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable way. Plant breeding is an important factor contributing to the increased crop productivity and diversity, giving farmers access to genetically improved cultivars that yield more, have better resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and meet consumer expectations. To motivate and encourage further investments, it is important to measure the actual impact of breeding. This review considers available research on the impact of breeding through yield gain and of food security, focusing on 10 important staple crops in SSA. The overall impression is that breeding produces a very high return on investment. Such investments remain centerpieces for meeting the challenges in this region. The discussion focuses on the most important future breeding priorities for each crop, the actors involved, and the importance of mechanisms for dissemination and farmer adoption, and concludes with some policy recommendations.