The steady growth of the global population has intensified the need for food, exacerbating challenges to global food security. To address these challenges, gene editing techniques, particularly Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 was introduced which served as a revolutionary gene-editing tool inspired by bacterial defense system. It enables precise DNA alterations in crops and microbes, offering faster, more accurate, and cost-effective genetic modifications compared to traditional methods. CRISPR offers precise genetic editing in agriculture, promising solutions to food security challenges, yet ethical concerns demand thorough research and transparent dialogue for responsible deployment. Despite its potential benefits in agriculture, CRISPR technology faces resistance from community organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) due to ethical concerns. To explore the ethical dimensions of CRISPR-Cas9 in agriculture, we conducted a bibliometric analysis using Scopus® data and the Bibliometrix package in R, with network visualization in Visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer. Our findings underscore the significant advantages of CRISPR in agriculture. However, the limited contribution of genetically modified (GM) and genetically edited (GE) crops to global food security stems from the lack of consensus among international regulatory bodies on the adoption of new genomic techniques (NGT). Our analysis reveals concentrated research activity in China and the United States followed by India. The paper also highlights instances of GM consumption in non GM Food countries without clear regulatory guidelines. The ethical implications surrounding CRISPR and gene-edited crops demand extensive research and dialogue within the scientific community. Urgent decisions are needed on the production and use of genetically modified and genetically edited crops to secure food for the growing global population. All rights reserved, Elsevier.
