International exports are critical to farmers’ profitability, but regulatory roadblocks to biotechnology approvals are causing trade delays, loss of access to new and scientifically proven safe technology and decreased global food security. The Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) along with industry partners will once again host the International Biotechnology Symposium to continue to build awareness around the need for a global, synchronous, science-based approval process.

Stakeholders from across the agriculture industry will come together for this half-day event on Aug. 31, the day before the Farm Progress Show. The discussions will focus on new biotechnology trait approvals and trade with China and Europe. The program will consist of keynote speakers and four panels that will cover the following topics:

• Constraints to biotechnology trait approvals in China and Europe;
• Economic costs of delayed regulatory trait approvals;
• Importance of biotechnology for end users in the value chain; and
• The role of biotechnology in improving global food security.

Speakers at this year's event include Floyd Gaibler, director of trade policy and biotechnology at the U.S. Grains Council; Jeff Nawn, senior manager of biotech affairs and regulatory at DuPont Pioneer; Stephanie Murphy, director of international government affairs and trade at Monsanto; and keynote speaker Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, a University of Missouri economist.

More than 200 biotech regulators, government officials, company and organization representatives, international trade experts and farmers from 12 countries on five continents participated in the first International Biotechnology Symposium.

Along with ISA, sponsors of the symposium include Penton/Farm Progress, DuPont Pioneer, the U.S. Soybean Export Council, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee, Syngenta, National Corn Growers Association, National Soybean Research Laboratory, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Bayer CropScience, Illinois Corn, Illinois Pork Producers Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers.

To view the agenda, register and participate in the discussion on biotech approval, visit biotechnologysymposium.com.