The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday launched a unified website for biotechnology regulation. The agencies timed the rollout to coincide with January 2020’s observance of National Biotechnology Month.

New forms of biotechnology allow for the modification of living
Continue Reading Federal agencies join efforts for electronic home for biotech regs

The reaction was somewhat muted to the new “regulatory framework” for agricultural biotechnology products announced last week by the White House and USDA.

The big agriculture organizations and biotech industry did, of course, quickly praise President Trump’s new executive order.  For something  that streamlines the regulation of genetically modified organisms,
Continue Reading New Executive Order to fast track agricultural technology applications

About 40 activist organizations that usually can be counted upon to rally with the organic industry against genetically engineered (GE) plants and animals did just that on Monday. They weighed in with a letter to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the federal regulation of biotechnology products.
Continue Reading Organic Industry Wants Biotechnology Regulated By Process, Not Product

The plant biotechnology industry, which, until now, treated those who questioned genetically engineered plants as unwashed Luddites who weren’t worth anyone’s time or attention, is well into a new approach. Through GMO Answers, an offshoot of the Council for Biotechnology Information, the industry is doing the digital equivalent
Continue Reading Plant Biotechnology Industry Rolls Out Site to Address Top Consumer Questions

Possibly more important in the long run than California’s vote on whether genetically modified foods should be labeled–which might not pass muster with federal courts anyway–will be the recommendations of USDA’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture.

Created in 2003, the so-called AC21 Committee, whose current members are
Continue Reading AC21 Report Won’t Drop Until After Election