Regulations for Agricultural Biotech Have Fallen Behind the Pace of Innovation, Impeding Further Advances, Says ITIF Report

WASHINGTON—New methods for genetically improving plants, animals, and microbes hold the potential to address many of today’s most urgent challenges in areas such as sustainable agriculture and climate change. But poorly implemented, unscientific regulations are impeding innovation and progress with no commensurate safety benefits, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy.

ITIF calls on the Biden administration to streamline and modernize agricultural-biotech regulations with discrete measures that place greater reliance on science and data at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“The science of genetic engineering holds the key to many of our most pressing problems. We can accelerate those solutions and grow the economy if we bring science to bear in our approach to regulation, too,” said ITIF Senior Fellow L. Val Giddings, who authored the report. “The United States laid the foundation in the 1980s for a pragmatic, science-driven approach to regulating agricultural biotechnology. That allowed innovation to flourish, which delivered a global revolution in agricultural productivity and sustainability that has benefitted farmers, consumers, and the environment. But agencies often apply regulation in ways that are unduly precautionary, which impedes innovation with no additional safety or environmental benefits.”

ITIF’s analysis finds that USDA has made some progress updating and streamlining regulations, but it needs to move farther and faster. Meanwhile, EPA and FDA have become obstacles to progress and safety advances and urgently need to correct course. The report urges the Office of Science and Technology Policy to work with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure updates take place quickly.

Among the report’s recommendations:

• The FDA should cede authority over bioengineered animals to USDA.
• EPA should not draw distinctions irrelevant to risk between “native” and gene-edited plants in the process of identifying and regulating hazardous agricultural products—and it should regulate hazardous productsbefore they reach the market, not just label them afterward.
• Similarly, USDA should solicit public input to identify hazardous plant traits that may create undue risks to human health or the environment regardless of how they are generated.

“By taking a handful of steps to streamline and modernize regulation, the administration can reaffirm that the most effective way to safeguard the environment and human health is to make sure policies are grounded in empirical evidence and experience,” said Giddings. “That will stimulate and enable a new wave of innovative solutions that improve human health, protect the environment, and grow the economy.”

Read the report.