From Ancient Fields to Modern Labs

Professor Natalie Mueller opened the first NRP 84 webinar by offering an archaeological perspective on domestication, breeding and plant evolution. She emphasised that, from an anthropological standpoint, domestication is not synonymous with modern breeding. In fact, domestication unfolded gradually over thousands of years through ecological interactions between people, plants, landscapes and cultures. By contrast, modern breeding, especially gene editing, occurs mainly in laboratories and by individuals.

Using examples from ancient cereal farming, maize cultivation, chilli pepper cultivation and manioc farming in the Amazon, Professor Mueller demonstrated how cultural practices, local ecosystems and seed exchange networks generated the diversity that modern science relies on today. She emphasised that domestication is an ongoing process that is under threat worldwide, particularly where industrial agriculture and the consolidation of seed systems reduce on-farm diversity.

Professor Mueller's work is directly relevant to the objectives of NRP 84, which is to evaluate NBTs from technical, social, ethical, economic and regulatory perspectives. The webinar thus emphasised that evaluating NBTs requires acknowledging both the benefits and the risks, as well as situating technological advances within complex agroecological and socioeconomic systems — precisely the integrated perspective that NRP 84 aims to foster.