Seven University of Minnesota grad students are fed up with the regulatory process for GMO crops and asking for their U.S. representatives to help. The University of Minnesota College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences students sent a letter requesting the U.S. representatives co-author a bipartisan bill to deregulate the process for developing GMO crops that have the potential to produce sustainable sources of fiber and fuel (not food).
In the letter, the students detail how the process to obtain government approval of one GMO crop can cost between $20 million and $30 million, and generally only big corporations can fit that bill, limiting marketplace competition.
In addition to cutting costs, the students are also requesting that the regulatory process for approving GMO fuel and fiber crops fall under the EPA or the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, not both. They hope by limiting the request to apply to only fuel and fiber crops it will make it less challenging to write and pass such a bill.
