Republican members of the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are raising questions about Agriculture Department’s approval of a biotech soybean variety from a Chinese company.
Six House lawmakers, including Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said in a letter to the agency that they are concerned about the speed of the agency’s review of a soybean variety developed by Qi Biodesign, a firm they say is “backed by several PRC state-operated funds, including CAS Star which is directly controlled by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.” They asked agency officials to “immediately revisit” their review.
Companies hoping to sell their gene-edited crop varieties in the U.S. can submit a request to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for a regulatory status review (RSR), which determines whether the plant poses a plant pest risk. If the agency deems it does not, varieties with the same mechanism can be sold without restrictions according to APHIS's website.
Qi Biodesign submitted a request for a review of its line of high oleic acid soybeans April 25 and updated it May 23. On May 29, APHIS Deputy Administrator Bernadette Juarez said in a letter to the company that the agency’s review determined the soybean variety is “unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk relative to its comparators.”
USDA spokesperson Allan Rodriguez told Agri-Pulse APHIS in no way expedited its review. The agency had reviewed soybeans with similar traits in 1997, 2010 and 2011, and began the process of reviewing a similar submission from a different company last November.
Because Qi Biodesign’s April request was for a variety with the same plant-trait-mechanism of action as another company's November submission, the agency was able to review both at roughly the same time. APHIS would not have needed a review for the Qi Biodesign product once it had approved the November submission due to the products’ similarities, he said.
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The process, Rodriguez added, is “designed to to use previous knowledge, experience, and reviews to facilitate completion of subsequent RSR submissions when possible.” The agency has recently run into similar scenarios when evaluating other crops that share analogous plant-trait-mechanism of action combinations with varieties it has reviewed in the past, like four potato lines from Michigan State University, some pennycress lines and a camelina product.
“As mandated by Congress under the Plant Protection Act, APHIS conducts regulatory status reviews of plants developed using genetic engineering to determine whether a modified plant poses a plant pest risk,” Rodriguez told Agri-Pulse in a statement. “We look forward to working with Congress and discussing their concerns.”
While the lawmakers said they understand the agency has been trying to work through review backlogs, they added they are “deeply troubled USDA would swiftly grant RSR for a PRC firm.”
“While the PRC is clear-eyed about its desire to never allow its agriculture industry to be reliant on foreign technology, it appears the USDA is approving PRC agriculture biotechnology without concern for U.S. supply chains or trade negotiations,” they wrote. “USDA’s clearance of Qi Biodesign’s products undermines years of hard-nosed U.S. trade demands and could make U.S. farmers complicit in the PRC’s desire to replace them.”
In addition to Moolenaar, lawmakers who signed the letter are Republicans Neal Dunn and Carlos Giménez of Florida, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, Ashley Hinson of Iowa, and Ben Cline of Virginia.
Agri-Pulse reached out to Qi Biodesign for comment, but did not receive a response.
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