The Hill News

American agricultural has long been the envy of the world, in large part because American farmers are early and enthusiastic adopters of technology. That’s one reason this sector of the U.S. economy remains strong, even in the current economic slump, consistently turning in a trade surplus.
 
It would be a mistake, however, to take this record of success for granted. Increasingly, farmers are seeing new challenges to the technologies on which they rely.

In recent years, for instance, the regulatory system that ensured our safety while enabling U.S. farmers to compete with the newest technologies has been increasingly sluggish. More and more promising biotech traits find themselves stuck in the regulatory pipeline at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is responsible for new biotech approvals. The original intent â€" and indeed law â€" was for APHIS to approve new biote! ch traits within six months, but over the last decade the process has slowed to the point that it now sometimes takes as long as five years.

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