SECURE Rule FAQs.pdf

The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has revised its plant biotechnology regulations, known as the SECURE rule, to provide regulatory relief, enable innovation, and protect plant health. The new rule focuses on regulating organisms that pose a risk to plant health, and exempts plants that could have been developed through conventional breeding techniques. The rule defines genetic engineering as techniques that use recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids to modify or create a genome, and establishes a more efficient process to identify organisms that would be subject to regulation. APHIS estimates that a small number of plants that were not regulated under the prior regulations may be regulated under the SECURE rule, and that the number of organisms developed using genetic engineering that remain subject to the regulations will be lower. The final rule is expected to stimulate innovation and technical advancement, leading to additional competitiveness for American agriculture, and provide greater trade opportunities for farmers and rural economies, with estimated net private sector savings of $8.3 million.