b'Over-regulation massively limits application development, protects incumbents, and limits innovation.Kiersten SteadPolicymakers have a tendency to regulate agricultural tech- gies can be improved and used to their full potential as other nologies well in advance of being able to see their potentialtechnologies are.unfold, she notes. DCVC Bio is one of the first investors to think about how our On the software/hardware side of technologyI like to useindustry can combine the use of big data which involves both engi-phones as an examplewe tend to regulate things only after weneering technologies and artificial intelligence. We look at things see what the problem is that we need to solve. Unfortunately, thefrom a technology-first perspective along with the biology side.life sciences are the polar opposite and we end up slowing downThe problem is that policymakers often think regulation is progress and hindering ourselves competitively. good when it comes to the life sciences, but the data shows the As a scientist by training, she got her degree in molecularopposite, according to Stead.biology and genetics at the University of Alberta and spent aWith increased regulation, you are suppressing competition. lot of time working on applications in row crops. She workedOverregulation doesnt get you where you want to you want to in canola variety development, but soon was exposed to thebe, yet we think its a good thing and we think its better to have process of observing of the R&D process and less of the biologymore of it rather than less because it makes us feel safer, when it end of things. fact it hinders us in a lot of ways, she adds.I saw there were huge challenges and a lot of value builtRegulation in the life sciences often comes in advance of outside of the lab actually getting a biological technology like aexploring how emerging technologies can be developed. Other canola variety into the hands of society, which is where the trueadvances (like semiconductor chips) tend to be regulated later, value is created. according to applications instead of regulating the use of the tech-According to Stead, agricultural technologiesbiotech espe- nology broadly. Such over-regulation massively limits application ciallyneed room to expand and evolve so that those technolo- development, protects incumbents, and limits innovation.SW68/ SEEDWORLD.COMSEPTEMBER 2022'