Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Agriculture and National Security Act and the Agricultural Biotechnology Coordination Act. These bills aim to bolster the global competitiveness of the United States agricultural sector in emerging biotechnology and to address security vulnerabilities across the food and agriculture sector. Through the work of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, we have developed these proposals aimed at improving coordination between Agencies to accelerate agricultural biotechnology products and to include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, in important national security discussions to enhance our capabilities on disease surveillance, food security, agriculture data security, and many other critical issues. Agricultural biotechnology is a rapidly evolving field consisting of traditional breeding techniques and genetic engineering, among other methods, to alter living organisms into new or modified agricultural products for a variety of uses. Advances in agricultural biotechnology provide farmers with tools that can make production more efficient and manageable, which is critical for keeping pace with demands for food and our national security. In 1986, the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology was established to provide for the regulatory oversight of organisms derived through genetic engineering.…”