Three-quarters of the American West is dealing with the worst drought in decades, threatening farmers and wildlife—yet another sign of the need for urgent climate action. Luckily, we have biotechnology that can enable more sustainable agricultural practices and help farmers respond with resilience—but many countries block this innovation.
With the threat of climate change growing by day, we need to overcome barriers to ag biotechnology, BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath wrote in a letter sent on Friday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai.
“As you seek to position agriculture as a solution to domestic and global climate and sustainability challenges, the United States must continue to address acute and systemic trade barriers to innovative biotechnology tools in important export markets,” she said.
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“To fully leverage the potential of technology to address these challenges, a level-playing field globally will be essential”—particularly in these three regions:
The European Union, where “for the first time in decades, there appear to be opportunities emerging…to enable innovation. Both the Farm to Fork strategy and the European Commission’s recent study on New Genomic Techniques point to the importance of innovation to achieving a more sustainable food system.”
“However, significant risks remain as Europe’s regulatory processes are fundamentally prejudiced to agricultural biotechnology,” continues the letter.
And China, which “agreed to complete regulatory review of biotechnology products within two years, on average, and to limit the scope of the regulatory review to the product’s intended use, i.e. feed or further processing.”
But: “China has failed to address either issue.”
Then there’s Mexico, where we’ve seen “rapid dismantling of regulatory institutions and international commitments to biotechnology.” As one example, Mexico’s president issued a decree stating the intention to phase out GMO corn for human consumption by 2024 and refrain from future biotech approvals—read more.
The bottom line: Harnessing the latest science to combat climate change will require a global strategy—one that addresses existing trade barriers in China, the EU, and Mexico and builds common ground. BIO urges the Biden administration to build a proactive trade agenda aimed at addressing existing barriers to biotechnology and facilitating regulatory approvals for critical climate technologies for agriculture.
Read and share the letter.
