The federal government needs to enable the introduction of new gene editing techniques so small and medium-sized plant breeders can afford to bring their innovations to market, says Dave Carey, Executive-Director of the Canadian Seed Trade Association.The existing regulatory system for plant breeding “lacks clarity, service standards and is prohibitively expensive for smaller and medium sized companies due to the uncertainty of timelines and data requirements,” he said in a brief prepared for the Senate agriculture committee.“Given Canada's reputation for ag innovation and our history of success in exporting products of biotechnology, we should be standing at the forefront, championing and encouraging the adoption of the newest tools that will drive innovation in seed and grain,” he said.“However, members of the Agriculture Canada Seed and Grain Roundtables, like CSTA, are concerned with the state of Canada's readiness to adopt the newest cutting-edge innovations, and we see Canada at risk of losing our share of global investment in the newest technologies,” he said.“Tools like gene editing can bring new varieties to the market faster and with lower costs than ever before. These varieties may be higher yielding, healthier for consumers and the environment while continuing to maintain Canada's high safety standards.“We need a regulatory system that has a clear path to market and allows small and medium size companies to innovate and compete,” he said. That's especially true for small and medium-sized plant breeders who can't afford the decade long approval process for genetically modified seeds. They need access “to all the tools in the innovation toolbox.“In particular, plant breeders need access to critical crop protection products and the ability to use the newest plant breeding methods, such as CRISPR Cas 9 and other gene editing systems.”Ron Davidson, Executive Director of Soy Canada, told the committee that “Canada is seriously falling behind in the approval of plant breeding technologies such as gene editing to the point.” Gene editing “offers big opportunity in soybeans and many other crops. There is real uncertainty in the scientific and research communities now as to what kind of regulatory environment those products are going to face.Canada's out of date regulatory system is “putting at risk the science being done in Canada and the potential for the Canadian sector to take advantage of that science at an early stage,” he said.While government officials have been briefed on the issue by the agrifood sector, “We certainly haven't seen any action to address that because we are behind.”Carey said Canada has made strides in encouraging the development of new crop varieties, most notably the adoption of more robust intellectual property protection for plant breeders. “But our members and their farmer customers need access to the latest innovations without an undue wait.”Once new trade agreements are signed, government needs to ramp up the issuance of phytosanitary certificates that seed exports require from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, he said. The certificates “are essentially passports that allow shipments into foreign markets and currently only CFIA can issue them. Our members are experiencing significant delays in the issuance of them, putting Canadian companies at a competitive disadvantage with the U.S. The more we innovate and increase our exports the more certificates we will need.”As well, the agrifood sector “requires a whole-of-government approach to analyzing and reviewing our domestic regulations,” he said. “Ill-suited regulations can curb or discourage investment in innovation.”A 2012 survey of the seed sector found that about 90 per cent of crop research and development was dedicated to corn, canola and soybeans, he said. “This is a very small fraction of the crops grown in Canada that could benefit from innovation. Increased investment in other crop kinds such as cereals, pulses and forages will lead to varieties with increased disease and pest resistance. Better yields will in turn play a major role in increasing Canadian exports, and our ability to reach ambitious export targets.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.