Mon. 21, 2025 | GES Colloquium

Farm animal welfare in the gene editing era: a challenge for regulations across the globe. A comparative study between the United States, the European Union and Switzerland

Bridging law, ethics, and biotechnology, this talk by Yale PhD candidate Ilaria Cimadori will evaluate how countries regulate the welfare implications of gene-edited livestock. Through a comparative legal analysis, it identifies both promising approaches and critical blind spots in global governance of agricultural breeding innovations.

This presentation examines how different legal systems (the United States, the European Union, and Switzerland) address farm animal welfare in the context of evolving breeding technologies and techniques, such as gene editing, from a legal and regulatory perspective. After outlining the welfare issues and concerns identified in scientific and ethical literature, it analyzes and compares the regulatory frameworks governing animal breeding, gene editing, and animal welfare in these jurisdictions. The goal is to assess the adequacy of those legal tools in protecting farm animals from negative welfare consequences associated with breeding goals, particularly to increase productivity. The presentation highlights the strengths and weaknesses of both legal and, where relevant, non-legal instruments, using the "ethical animal welfare" framework, which prioritizes animal well-being for its own sake, beyond suffering and economic considerations. The presentation concludes by identifying regulatory gaps and areas for improvement, offering insights into strengthening legal tools to better safeguard animal welfare amid rapid advancements in biotechnology and breeding practices.

Related links:

• The Protection of Selectively Bred and Gene Edited Farm Animals under EU Law - Cimadori I. Di Concetto A, Grieger K. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2025.
• Parameters, practices, and preferences for regulatory review of emerging biotechnology products in food and agriculture - Kuzma, J., Grieger, K., Cimadori, I., et al. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2023.
• Download seminar poster

Ms. Ilaria Cimadori, MA

PhD Candidate at Yale University | Profile Ilaria is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, School of the Environment. Her current research examines the adequacy of laws and regulations in safeguarding farm animals from the impacts of breeding practices and gene editing, using a comparative legal approach. She is a fellow of the Law, Environment and Animal Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School. Ilaria holds an MA in Comparative International Relations from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, specializing in the protection of animals in international law. During her master’s studies, she was awarded a scholarship to conduct research at Duke University, where she developed her dissertation on the protection of African elephants in international law. Passionate about advancing legal frameworks for animal protection, she aims to contribute to more effective regulations addressing the ethical challenges of evolving breeding technologies. __ Recorded from NC State’s GES Colloquium, this podcast examines how biotechnologies take shape in the world: microbiome engineering in built environments, gene editing and gene drives, forest and agricultural genomics, data governance and equity, risk and regulation, sci-art, and public engagement in practice.

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