b'But to do that, Stead says we need progressive regu- nology like a canola variety into the hands of society, latory frameworks that put an emphasis on enablingwhich is where the true value is created.innovation. According to Stead, agricultural technologiesbio-What would life be like if your phone was regulatedtech especiallyneed room to expand and evolve so in the same way that transgenic crops were regulated?that those technologies can be improved and used to she said. their full potential as other technologies are.It would probably look like something that wasDCVC Bio is one of the first investors to think about made in 1972 and it wouldnt work well. Of course,how our industry can combine the use of big data which new phones come out all the time, constantly beinginvolves both engineering technologies and artificial improved and refined in order to better enable whatintelligence. We look at things from a technology-first users are already doing with them. perspective along with the biology side.Policymakers have a tendency to regulate agriculturalThe problem is that policymakers often think regula-technologies well in advance of being able to see theirtion is good when it comes to the life sciences, but the potential unfold, she notes. data shows the opposite, according to Stead.On the software/hardware side of technologyIWith increased regulation, you are suppressing like to use phones as an examplewe tend to regulatecompetition. Overregulation doesnt get you where you things only after we see what the problem is that wewant to be, yet we think its a good thing and we think need to solve. Unfortunately, the life sciences are theits better to have more of it rather than less because it polar opposite and we end up slowing down progressmakes us feel safer, when it fact it hinders us in a lot of and hindering ourselves competitively. ways, she adds.A scientist by training, she got her degree in molecu- Regulation in the life sciences often comes in lar biology and genetics at the University of Albertaadvance of exploring how emerging technologies can be and spent a lot of time working on applications in rowdeveloped. Other advances (like semiconductor chips) crops. She worked in canola variety development, buttend to be regulated later, according to applications soon was exposed to the process of observing the R&Dinstead of regulating the use of the technology broadly. process and less of the biology end of things. Such over-regulation massively limits application develop-I saw there were huge challenges and a lot of valuement, protects incumbents, and limits innovation. built outside of the lab actually getting a biological tech-42GERMINATION.CANOVEMBER 2022'