A new sustainability paradigm beyond the organic brand.

Producing enough food to feed the world in an environmentally sustainable way represents a major challenge for humanity. It requires a bold paradigm that maximises options for the future. In contrast, organic farming has serious limitations, as it is based on an oversimplified assumption that natural substances are safe and artificial substances are unsafe. This approach severely constrains options for using synthetic inputs or new breeding techniques (NBTs) because they are perceived as 'unnatural'. In this opinion article, we encourage a more objective evaluation of the contribution of synthetic inputs and NBTs to sustainability. We argue that crop production per se is not a natural situation and that it is important to keep options open for the future.