Being an international lawyer living in Beijing, it continues to impress me how comprehensively agriculture influences economy, society and people's health. Economies like India and China have an urgent need for modern agricultural technologies to secure sustainable production and safe food products while, in contrast, developed countries are in need of new (export) markets.

Long term demand for a range of agricultural (food) products will continue to increase dramatically over the coming decades. This demand is predominantly driven by developing countries in Asia. International merger and acquisition activities in the agriculture, food and biotech industry have surged worldwide. New technologies and breeding methods are changing the conventional agricultural business models. Agriculture related trade issues have become complex and can involve the national security of a country. This makes agriculture a global and strategic business affair.

Agriculture law covers a comprehensive and dynamic legal playing field in which national or regional laws interact with international obligations and standards as stated in the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the UPOV Convention, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Codex Alimentarius.

Agricultural law has become a distinct discipline in the legal landscape and deserves to be treated as such, next to the more established conventional legal practice areas like banking, M&A, real estate, intellectual property, employment, litigation and tax, to name a few.

This publication addresses different legal practice areas such as agricultural land ownership, agriculture related foreign investment issues, seed law, plant variety protection (including breeder's exemption and farmer’s privilege), animal and plant gene rights, GM food trade, food safety standards and food product liability. The publication is not exhaustive. It does not advocate any particular agricultural policy or legal regime.

The purpose of these jurisdictional comparisons is to enable foreign investors, food producers, legal professionals and policy makers to make cross-border comparisons between countries on different agriculture practice areas.

This first edition has been a tremendous challenge to create. It covers key jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America. At the time this first edition of the Agricultural Law Global Guide goes to print new candidate firms have already expressed interest in providing additional country contributions to be incorporated in a future edition and the online version.

My thanks go to all contributing lawyers and their respective firms for sharing their expertise, their time and their patience to comply with the stringent question format in order to bring about this unique publication. Great thanks are also due to Katie Burrington, Dawn McGovern, Emily Kyriacou, Nicola Pender and Stuart Fellows of the Thomson Reuters team, for their encouragement to start this particular publication project and for their ongoing professional support.

Finally, comments on the subject matter of this publication or suggestions to add certain chapters to a future edition or the online version will be gratefully received.