Extensive genome sequencing for crops and precise DNA gene insertion with genome editing provide cheap, precise and readily applicable tools to widen the availability of genetic variation for crop improvement from Crop Wild Relatives (CWR). These contain much wider genetic variation than domestic crops, which have only a small fraction of the variance available in the primary gene pool for crop domestication. The secondary, tertiary and quaternary gene pools are also potential sources of desirable traits. CWR encompass variation for extreme stresses over the many eons before crop domestication within the last 12,000 years, and contain better tolerances of drought, heat, frost, salinity, and flooding. Such stresses will be exacerbated as climate change becomes more severe with increased global warming.

Population increases projected to over 9 billion by 2050 and over 10 billion by 2100, highlighting the need for greater agricultural productivity. Thus there are the challenges of feeding more people under more variable environments, with extreme stresses to which most crops are un-adapted. There is an urgent need for genetic and agronomic transformations of cropping by 2050. At least partial resilience to climate change can be bred into crops with targeted pyramiding of tolerances transferred from CWR. This is a monumental aspiration to achieve across crops within a short time, in comparison with the ‘green revolution’ transformation of crops last century.

To meet this challenge for agriculture, a rollback of GMO regulations is required. These restrictions greatly add to research and development costs, and bureaucracy, and are no longer necessary. GMO derived food has proven safe, and GMO crops can reduce the use of chemicals. However, asynchronous national regulations on GMO are a barrier to international trade, and discourage commercial investment. To address the challenges of climate change and food demand an international rollback of GMO regulations will be needed, to facilitate extensive introgression of novel abiotic/biotic tolerances and productivity traits into food and fibre crops for future food security.