§5921 Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research

Summary

The Agriculture Secretary must create a grant program to pay for environmental safety research about putting genetically engineered animals, plants, and microbes into the environment. Research that gets priority includes ways to reduce physical and biological risks, methods to track how engineered organisms spread, studies of how genes move between engineered and wild or farm species, comparisons of environmental impacts with other production systems, and other related studies. Grants go to the best projects and are open to public or private research and education groups. The Secretary must consult with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board, and coordinate with the EPA’s research office to avoid duplicate work. Congress may provide funds as needed, and the Secretary must set aside at least 2 percent of USDA biotechnology research outlays for these grants, using the money as fully as possible across the priority areas.