GFI, 2024
Recommendations to the incoming Trump administration
Summary
Department of Agriculture
The Department of Agriculture can create new opportunities for the country’s farmers and agricultural producers. The agency can facilitate groundbreaking academic research by identifying food biomanufacturing as a research priority within NIFA, increasing funding for innovative products within ARS to $50 million annually, and establishing Sustainable Protein Centers of Excellence at higher learning institutions. The agency should elevate novel food biomanufacturing within education and extension programs and leverage loan and loan guarantee programs to build America’s domestic biomanufacturing production capacity.
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration can ensure new food products get to market efficiently and promote public health and safety. The agency should ensure new products are labeled to provide clarity, reduce consumer confusion, and encourage innovation. The agency should also proactively engage early-stage food innovation companies and researchers.
Office of Science and Technology Policy
The Office of Science and Technology Policy can play a leading role in developing the bioeconomy. The office should implement executive-level directives, including President Trump’s 2019 Executive Order on biotechnology, to accelerate the research, development, workforce, and commercialization of American food and agriculture. OSTP should implement recommendations of the “Catalyzing Across Sectors to Advance the Bioeconomy” initiative and increase much-needed interagency coordination within existing entities like the National Bioeconomy Board.
Department of Energy
The Department of Energy can advance agricultural innovations, diversify and secure our protein supply, and enable U.S. agricultural excellence. The agency should support development and commercialization of innovative agricultural technologies by providing research and biomanufacturing grants and increasing applied research efforts at the National Laboratories. The agency should also re-focus grants, loans, and loan guarantees for innovative uses of biological resources through programs like SBIR and STTR.
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation should increase alternative protein funding, including dedicated funding calls, in line with the consensus, nonpartisan CASA-Bio recommendations. The agency can also drive investment by facilitating public-private and international partnerships for new food sources, including bilateral research agreements.
Department of Commerce
The Department of Commerce can supercharge American economic growth by investing in food manufacturing. The agency should leverage the bipartisan Tech Hub and Manufacturing USA programs to support America’s food and agriculture research, development, and manufacturing.
Department of Defense
The Department of Defense can strengthen national security and fortify our food system by investing in food biomanufacturing. The agency should ramp up its food biomanufacturing investments under the DPA and the Distributed Industrial Base Consortium to commercial-scale levels, i.e., $250 million annually. The agency should also increase R&D funding for efficient, deployable, and essential food production at DARPA, DEVCOM, and BioMADE.
State Department
The State Department should expand foreign markets for American technologies like precision fermentation. The agency should elevate food biomanufacturing within food and agriculture policy through joint working groups with USDA and other stakeholders.