Yesterday, the Biden-Harris administration announced new goals and priorities to advance American biotechnology and biomanufacturing. This follows President Biden’s September 2022 executive order to advance a national biotechnology and biomanufacturing initiative. The EO contained many provisions important to American soybean farmers, including actions that will support improved markets for biobased products, create greater access to biotechnology, and encourage research and development supporting the “bioeconomy,” or economic activity derived from biotechnology and biomanufacturing.
To coincide with the announcement, the White House released a new report outlining a vision for what is possible with the power of biotechnology and biomanufacturing, research and development needs to achieve this ambitious vision. The report includes information from federal agencies assessing the potential for biotechnology and biomanufacturing research and development to further five societal goals: climate change solutions, food and agricultural innovation, supply chain resilience, human health, and crosscutting advances.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released a new report called for in the President’s EO that assesses the feasibility of measuring the economic contributions of the country’s bioeconomy. The report also includes an assessment of what is needed to better, more accurately measure these contributions. Read more from the White House here.
