Various genome-editing technologies have been embraced by plant breeders across the world as promising tools for the improvement of different crops to deliver consumer benefits, improve agronomic performance, and increase sustainability. The uptake of genome-editing technologies in plant breeding greatly depends on how governments regulate its use. Some major agricultural production countries have already developed regulatory approaches that enable the application of genome editing for crop improvement, while other governments are in the early stages of formulating policy. Central to the discussion is the principle of “like products should be treated in like ways” and the subsequent utilization of exclusions and exemptions from the scope of GMO regulations for these products. In some countries, the outcomes of genome editing that could also have been achieved through conventional breeding have been defined as not needing GMO regulatory oversight. In this paper, we provide a short overview of plant breeding and the history of plant biotechnology policy development, the different classes of current regulatory systems and their use of exemptions and exclusions for genome-edited plants, and the potential benefits of such approaches as it relates to achieving societal goals.

各种基因组编辑技术已被世界各地的植物育种者视为改良不同作物的有前景的工具，从而为消费者带来利益，提高农艺性能并提高可持续性。基因组编辑技术在植物育种中的采用很大程度上取决于政府如何监管其使用。一些主要农业生产国已经制定了监管方法，能够将基因组编辑应用于作物改良，而其他政府则处于制定政策的早期阶段。讨论的核心是“同类产品应以同样的方式对待”的原则，以及随后对这些产品使用转基因生物法规范围的排除和豁免。在一些国家，本来可以通过传统育种实现的基因组编辑结果被定义为不需要转基因生物监管。在本文中，我们简要概述了植物育种和植物生物技术政策发展的历史、当前监管系统的不同类别及其对基因组编辑植物的豁免和排除的使用，以及此类方法的潜在好处关系到实现社会目标。