Relocating to countries with less-stringent regulatory systems to work on gene editing of farm animals might seem attractive (see Nature 566, 433–434; 2019), but could be short-sighted. The technology’s potential for increasing food security — by improving animals’ drought tolerance, say — can be realized only if the public agrees to it.

Legislation for livestock welfare is often sparse in such countries. In Brazil, for example, farmers and their advisers have stated that pain control when dehorning cattle is unnecessary. Creating hornless animals through gene editing would spare dairy cattle that pain, but the public still needs to approve the technology’s application to its food supply.

National legislators must recognize the public as a valued stakeholder in all such experiments, wherever they are conducted.