All three of the federal agencies charged with regulating bioengineered plants and animals are looking at ways of streamlining regulations and smoothing the path to commercialization for gene-edited traits.
However, the Trump administration will have to hurry to finish overhauling the regulatory process well before January 2021, when a new president could be taking office if President Donald Trump isn’t reelected. Otherwise a new administration could do what the Trump administration did with revisions released by USDA and FDA in the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency: Scrap them and start over.
The Agriculture Department is the furthest along in the process. A proposed rule issued in June to rewrite regulations for biotech crop traits would exempt modified plants form regulation if they could be produced through conventional breeding techniques …. The proposed rule replaces an Obama-era proposal the industry considered too onerous.
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All of the agencies are under pressure from the White House to reduce barriers to the development and commercialization of biotech plants and animals. An executive order released by the White House in June gave the agencies six months to “identify relevant regulations….” that can be made more efficient ….
Read full, original article: Agencies pledge to streamline biotech regs, but timing unclear
