The use of modern agricultural biotechnology is a contentious global issue. The absence of international regulatory harmonization or, even more fundamentally, agreement on approaches to the regulation of new technologies, inhibits international trade in products derived from the use of biotechnology at a time when global food security is projected to be a major challenge. The issues underlying the current regulatory disharmony are outlined and the articles that comprise the Special Issue of the Estey Journal of International Law and Trade Policy which follow are introduced.