Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Compliance costs for regulatory approval of new biotech crops

Nature Biotechnology volume 25, pages 509–511 (2007)Cite this article

To the editor:

The regulatory approval process for new biotech crop varieties is said to be slow and expensive, presenting important barriers to the development and commercialization of new cropping technologies. For some crops these barriers may be prohibitive, resulting in technological orphans. Alternative approaches to regulating new crop biotechnologies could be less expensive, but to date the private and social costs of the current regulatory system have not been analyzed or measured, let alone compared with alternatives. In fact, estimates of the compliance costs for the full regulatory approval of a biotech crop do not exist, as such information has been closely guarded by biotech developers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Falk-Zepeda, J.B., Traxler, G. & Nelson, R.G. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 82, 360–369 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Huang, J., Rozelle, S., Pray, C. & Wang, Q. Science 295, 674–677 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jaffe, G. Withering on the Vine: Will Agricultural Biotechnology's Promise Bear Fruit? (Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington DC, 2005). <http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/withering_on_the_vine.pdf> (Accessed January 12, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bradford, K.J., Van Deynze, A., Gutterson, N., Parrott, W. & Strauss, S.H. Nat. Biotechnol. 23, 439–444 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. McElroy, D. Nat. Biotechnol. 21, 996–1002 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Miller, H.I. & Conko, G. Issues Sci. Technol. 21, 76–80 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance from a USDA special grant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Director of the Economics and Management of Agrobiotechnology Center, University of Missouri-Columbia 131 Mumford Hall, Columbia, 65211, Missouri, USA

    Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes

  2. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Agricultural Issues Center, 2157 Social Sciences & Humanities Building, 1 Shields Avenue

    Julian M Alston

  3. University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Julian M Alston

  4. Department of Plant Sciences and the Seed Biotechnology Center, 1107 Plant Reproductive Biology, 1 Shields Avenue

    Kent J Bradford

  5. University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Kent J Bradford

Authors
  1. Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Julian M Alston
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kent J Bradford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kalaitzandonakes, N., Alston, J. & Bradford, K. Compliance costs for regulatory approval of new biotech crops. Nat Biotechnol 25, 509–511 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0507-509

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0507-509

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing