The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a $180 million investment to launch the Seed Sovereignty Initiative for strengthening domestic agricultural security by protecting plant genetic resources.
The USDA will use the funding to sequence the genetics of major crops to “unlock the tremendous potential of the plant genetic resources the United States holds and identify critical gaps,” the department said in an Oct. 6 statement. Plant genetic resources can include seeds, plants, and plant parts.
Foreign competitors are acquiring and genetically sequencing plant resources from around the world while the United States is yet to sequence its own plant collections fully, the USDA said. Investment in the Seed Sovereignty Initiative aims to address this gap and reduce the risk of future foreign dependence on plant genetic resources….