Author Description

We can all agree that the science has consistently demonstrated agricultural biotechnology safety and that those products have enormous benefits. The regulatory approval process for agricultural biotechnology products has run into increasingly troublesome delays. USDA statutory authority to regulate plant-based products of agricultural biotechnology derives from the Plant Protection Act, the Act is a pure science statute. Under the Act all plant products are subject to regulatory review by USDA' Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHIS. APHIS's authority is to determine if any new product is a plant pest. If the product is found not to be a plant pest, USDA then deregulates it. USDA must base its decisions on quantifiable plant pest risk.