Thierry Risacher
Vilmorin & CIE

In the last 20 years genetic engineering of cereals has evolved rapidly, and has become a widely used tool to understand the function of genes, metabolic and regulation pathways. It is also aimed at improving quality, yield and responses to stress, an area of great potential to sustain the growing demands on food and feed and the environmental changes that await us.
During these years, the constraints on the release of GMOs have also grown and probably will continue to do so as the technology evolves. This presentation will demonstrate that the requirements for the development of commercial GM cereals are bringing a new level of complexity, and are resulting in a clear distinction between a research and a commercial approach. That transgenic plants produced for research purposes are now mostly incompatible with commercial requirements and that a commercial program is a complex strategic enterprise.