NSCEB Analysis: Securing America’s Food Supply with Biotechnology
Emerging biotechnologies provides farmers and growers with new alternatives to chemical fertilizers in a time where supply chains are vulnerable to disruption and rising prices.
15 October 2026
Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) published new analysis exploring how biofertilizers and biostimulants for agricultural production can reduce America’s dependence on vulnerable supply chains for conventional chemical fertilizers.
Biofertilizers and biostimulants can reduce reliance on traditional chemical fertilizers and are produced in the United States. While the U.S. leads in the research and development of these products, we are not prepared to capitalize on this advantage. Regulatory uncertainty, challenges in domestic manufacturing and investment, and a lack of data on performance of these products limit the domestic use of biofertilizers and biostimulants. The NSCEB’s new analysis identifies policy strategies for overcoming these barriers, including relieving regulatory ambiguity, supporting innovation, and addressing manufacturing challenges.
“American farmers have always embraced innovation, and biotechnology gives them a powerful new set of tools to meet the challenges ahead,” said NSCEB Chair Senator Todd Young. “Solutions like biofertilizers have the potential to help farmers get more from every acre while reducing our dependence on vulnerable fertilizer supply chains. The next step is making it easier to bring these technologies to market and expand production here at home, giving producers more options and keeping American agriculture competitive.”
Read the new paper here.
Policy Recommendations
The recommendations for addressing barriers to biofertilizers and biostimulants from the April 2025 NSCEB Report to Congress include:
- Develop a coordinated national biotechnology strategy led by a National Biotechnology Coordination Office to ensure a whole-of government strategy to advance innovations in agricultural biologicals.
- Establish and fund an Independence Investment Fund, led by a non-governmental manager, that would invest in technology startups that strengthen U.S. national and economic security.
- Introduced in the House of Representatives as the Independence Investment Fund Act (H.R.6412)
- Authorize and fund the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) to develop a network of manufacturing facilities across the country for precommercial bioindustrial product scale-up.
- Introduced in the House of Representatives as the Bioindustrial Scale-Up for Supply Chains and Energy Resiliency Act (H.R.7936)
- Introduced in the House of Representatives as the Bioindustrial Infrastructure for Open Scale-up, Commercialization, and Accelerated Launch Ecosystems (Bio-SCALE) Act (H.R.8918)
- Build a Web of Biological Data that would create a centralized database for researchers to gain insights on soil, microbial, environmental, genomic, and longitudinal field data to build confidence in new products.
- Introduced as the Web of Biological Data Act (H.R. 9307/S. 4770)
Regulatory Policy Options
The policy options presented in the January 2026 Future of Biotechnology Regulation papers include:
- Leverage information from prior reviews to speed review of similar products to accelerate regulatory approval and allow regulators to focus on truly novel products.
- Require clear, consistent regulatory guidance in coordination with researchers and developers to establish clear and consistent definitions for biofertilizers and biostimulants.
- Focus Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) regulation on plausible risks to plant health by adopting a tiered, risk-proportionate framework.
- Delineate clear regulatory pathways for genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) in the environment that eliminates overlapping review.
- Clarify Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) definitions for pesticide regulations and provide clear, science-based guidance for distinguishing biostimulant uses and claims.
- Provide risk-proportionate permitting for GEMs including outlining a stepwise approach to field trials with smaller trials that scale over time and lighter requirements for well-understood products.
New Policy Option:
- De-risk adoption through financial incentives so farmers can confidently experiment with biofertilizer use.
Read the NSCEB’s Action Plan and Report to Congress here.
Read the NSCEB’s Future of Biotechnology Regulations discussion paper here.
About NSCEB: The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology is a time-limited, high-impact legislative branch advisory entity whose purpose is to advance and secure biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and associated technologies for U.S. national security and to prepare the United States for the bioindustrial revolution. The Commission published a comprehensive report in April 2025, including recommendations for action by Congress and the federal government. The bipartisan Commission is composed of Congressionally-appointed Commissioners with members from both the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as experts from industry, academia, and government. For more information about the Commission and to view the report, visit: biotech.senate.gov.
Contacts:
NSCEB: press@biotech.senate.gov
