Jessica Adelman, a biotechnology expert, spoke at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) about the importance of policies that support agriculture. 

She noted that world leaders who are committed to finding solutions to mitigate the global food crisis need to work together to streamline the regulatory process.  Listen to her lecture here.

Today, the US House Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research and Biotechnology held a hearing to review the opportunities and benefits of agricultural biotechnology. During his testimony before the committee, Dr. Roger Beachy, president emeritus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, said the regulatory process needs to be reformed if America is going to remain competitive.  

He pointed out, “there are a growing number of examples of new inventions developed through genetic engineering that have good likelihood of success and that continue to be delayed in reaching the marketplace because of regulatory processes that are ill-defined and/or unpredictable, sometimes irrational, and always costly. This is an area for significant concern to inventors and entrepreneurs, and is worthy of attention and reform.” Read Dr. Beachy’s full testimony.