British agriculture reached a significant milestone on 13 November 2025, when the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 officially came into effect. In combination with the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, this legislation sets the framework for the use of advanced genetic technologies - such as gene editing - to develop crops with desirable traits more efficiently and precisely than traditional breeding methods.
What Is Precision Breeding?
Precision breeding refers to techniques that make targeted mutations to an organism’s DNA without introducing transgenes (i.e. genes transferred from another organism). Unlike older genetic modification methods, these approaches mimic natural processes and result in plants that could have arisen naturally, but with greater accuracy and speed. The Act provides a clear legal pathway for these innovations, ensuring that they are regulated for safety whilst still enabling scientific progress.
Why Does This Matter?
The benefits could be transformative:
- Improved resilience: Innovators can design crops to withstand drought, pests, and diseases on an accelerated timescale compared to traditional breeding methods (which would take decades to achieve).
- Environmental sustainability: Precision breeding supports climate-smart farming by enabling the development of beneficial traits in plants on an accelerated timescale without reliance on environmentally damaging chemical inputs, such as some fertilisers and pesticides. Improving crop resilience will also help to reduce shortages caused by weather fluctuations, which are becoming ever more prevalent.
- Higher yields and quality: Enhanced productivity helps us to meet the growing food demand while maintaining and even improving nutrition. For example, biofortified tomatoes as a source of vitamin D.
This act opens doors for research and agricultural innovation in the UK, and offers us tools to tackle challenges such as food security and climate change; paving the way for a more sustainable and competitive agricultural sector.
This blog was co-authored by Sarah Harvey and Louise Atkins, with contributions from Ben Tolley.
Sarah Harvey
Sarah is an Associate Patent Attorney working as part of our Life Sciences team. She has a degree in Biological Sciences from Oxford University. She completed her PhD at Warwick University in plant pathology looking at how pathogen effectors manipulate the plant immune response. Sarah then worked as a post-doc in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products at York University on plant responses to biotic stress.
Email: sarah.harvey@mewburn.com
