The path forward: Our recommendations for the Trump administration

Meet increasing demands for American-grown foods, build the American bioeconomy and bioworkforce, leverage U.S. scientific excellence, and deliver wins for U.S. farmers, consumers, and communities

Innovation, problem-solving, and agility are quintessential American traits.

Any look-back at U.S. history and economics will show us flexing these traits in big ways during moments of major change at home and around the world. America stands at one of those pivotal moments right here, right now.   

Just last week, GFI shared a set of recommendations with the incoming Trump Administration that leverage these signature American traits. Speaking to the themes and priorities laid out during the campaign, we call for a set of bold, smart actions that can build a modern, stronger, more resilient, and globally competitive U.S. bioeconomy inclusive of alternative proteins—meat made from plants, cultivated from animal cells, or produced via fermentation. 

A new American bioeconomy that prioritizes diversified protein production can deliver multiple wins, benefitting farmers and others on the frontlines of food production, entrepreneurs, businesses of all sizes, consumers, and lands and waters in every corner of our country. Visionaries who triple down on scientific excellence and innovation, give consumers greater choice, prioritize farming communities, and ensure clean, healthy air, water, and soil will lead the way.

Building on strengths: scientific excellence and innovation 

The United States has long been a global leader in agriculture and biotechnology. For decades, we’ve fed millions of people around the world. Our universities and researchers are renowned for advancing agricultural technologies and science-driven solutions. Sustained American leadership on this front, however, is not inevitable. Around the world, governments are increasing their investments in biomanufacturing-enabled food production. 

Our recommendations recognize that this country’s deep roots in agricultural science and innovation position America well to lead this next chapter—and tap the enormous potential of food biomanufacturing. Crops and feedstock from American farms—from corn and soybeans to yellow peas and mung beans—are used today in biotechnology processes like fermentation to produce in-demand foods. As American agriculture continues to become more efficient and sustainable, alternative proteins present a massive commercial and economic opportunity. 

Zooming out, U.S. scientific excellence has also influenced the U.S. space exploration community—from NASA to SpaceX—to support alternative proteins due to their unmatched potential for deployable food production. Nearly 25 years ago, NASA provided one of the world’s first-ever public grants for cultivated meat, and just last year, the agency funded private-sector innovation that uses gas fermentation for single-cell protein production. Today, space agencies from multiple countries are investigating alternative protein production as food sources for astronauts on long-term missions. Innovative food production truly knows no bounds.

Home to the world’s leading companies and researchers in the food biomanufacturing sector, the United States has the infrastructure, expertise, resources, and momentum to usher in a new chapter of agricultural innovation and leadership. By investing in food biomanufacturing, including novel protein production, the incoming Administration can create new markets, new jobs, and new opportunities for Americans in every corner of the country. Over the next four years, the United States can leverage expertise in biotechnology and biomanufacturing to bolster agricultural innovation at home and lead the global agricultural economy for decades to come.

Greater consumer choice, jobs, health, and safety

Biomanufacturing-enabled food production has the potential to open up new markets to benefit farmers, bring more choices to consumers, and lower costs for those now facing record-breaking prices at their grocery stores, all while generating millions of new jobs all across the country and lessening risks to public health. 

• Greater consumer choice and freedom: Public investments in biomanufacturing-enabled food production can help companies of all sizes scale up production of innovative new foods that meet consumers’ needs—delicious, nutritious, and affordable. The next administration can direct agencies to help such new foods get to market safely and efficiently, ensuring innovative food companies can describe their products on labels in ways that protect free speech, reduce consumer confusion, ease burdens on small businesses, and promote a free and fair market. American leadership can also ensure America remains the home of food freedom by rejecting attacks to censor or ban alternative protein products consumers want to buy. 

• Lower food prices: By supporting these new food products, the next administration can embrace market forces and bring down food prices for consumers. By diversifying protein production, the United States can hedge against risks, creating a more resilient food system that is less vulnerable to future shocks or supply chain disruptions, ensuring both food availability and affordability. 

• Jobs and the economy: A 2023 analysis conducted by McKinsey economists estimates that alternative proteins are expected to support 83 million jobs globally, contributing to a sector projected to be worth nearly $700 billion by 2050. Will those be American jobs? This administration can direct the Department of Commerce to supercharge American economic growth by investing in food manufacturing that can create good-paying jobs across the country, leveraging bipartisan programs that support America’s food and agriculture research, development, and manufacturing. Biomanufacturing-enabled food production can also reverse a growing trade deficit and tap into new markets—like seafood—that return the United States back to our position as the world’s agricultural leader.

• Public health and safety: Americans struggle to feed our families well: grocery store prices continue to rise and many foods on the market contribute to chronic disease. Many new foods, like plant-based meat, are options that provide health benefits to consumers. What’s more, compared to conventionally produced protein, a shift toward alternative proteins can reduce the risks associated with antimicrobial resistance and pandemics, while also improving air quality and reducing water use and pollution. In terms of biosecurity benefits, the Center for Strategic and International Studies identified new food production as a strategic asset: “Alternative protein supply chains may be less susceptible to bioterrorist threats than those of the current animal agriculture sector.”

New opportunities for farmers and rural communities across the country

Farmers in the United States and around the world are experiencing mounting challenges, from drought and flooding to devastating bird flus and crop blights. Too many communities are struggling to give future generations a reason to stay. Add to that a few other reality checks: Today, America is a net importer of agricultural products, and other countries are exceeding our public investments in food biomanufacturing like alternative proteins.

Increased support for and investment in novel protein production and manufacturing can help communities create future-resilient jobs and livelihoods, improve public health and wellbeing, and protect and restore natural resources that improve quality of life. Growing and producing crops for a variety of alternative protein products can help farmers reduce risks, create new income streams, help rebuild and retain soil, improve water quality, and infuse much-needed crop diversity and resilience into supply chains. A few specific opportunities:  

• Today, U.S. farmers already grow American staples like soy, wheat, peas, and beans that serve as essential ingredients for countless alternative protein products, feeding families all over the world. Increased support for research exploring speciality, cover, and other crops beyond those currently grown in high volumes will unlock even more market opportunities, creating new jobs and livelihoods in diversified protein supply chains and bringing economic opportunity to rural and urban communities across the country. 

• Planting nitrogen-fixing legumes, like peas and beans, could decrease the need for costly nitrogen fertilizers, while also improving soil health and water-holding capacity, reducing the risk of nitrogen runoff into groundwater and aquatic environments.

• Upcycling crop sidestreams for inputs into alternative protein products can create a more circular bioeconomy—one that produces food more efficiently and affordably. In North America, only a small portion of crop biomass is used for human consumption. In 2030, sidestreams from corn production alone could exceed 500 million metric tons per year, with significant additional sidestream volume from soy, wheat, barley, rice, canola, and tomatoes. Converting agricultural sidestreams into edible food or ingredients for alternative protein products is one of the most efficient ways to return these resources back to the food supply chain to save money and reduce waste. 

In partnership with farmers and other frontline food system workers, this next administration and stakeholders across the food system can enable new livelihoods in diversified protein supply chains. Together, we can advocate for policies that revitalize rural economies by incentivizing the growth of protein-rich crops, bolstering rural manufacturing and food processing infrastructure, and creating future-resilient jobs and careers.

Getting it done

For 2025 and beyond, what’s good for the future of American consumers, farmers, and business remains the same. GFI is here to keep amplifying how America can be a global leader in building the agricultural innovations and the bioeconomy of tomorrow.

With eyes trained on creating an American bioeconomy for the future that can benefit people and places across the country, GFI will be urging the Trump-Vance Administration to seek every opportunity to strengthen U.S. leadership in the growing industry of biomanufacturing-enabled food production. Because it’s important and good for the country, we will continue to advocate for greater public investment in science and innovation, for building domestic infrastructure, for creating millions of agrifood jobs, and improving regulatory processes that give consumers greater choice and freedom.  

We can do this. As a country, the United States has delivered world-changing innovations just when they’re needed. See Ford’s Model T, railroads, airplanes, microchips, lasers, and personal computers. This is our American story, and we have a chance right now to write a new chapter. Once more, we can leverage this exceptional part of ourselves to usher in an agricultural bioeconomy that feeds the world in transformative, future-shaping ways.  

Dig deeper

• Trump Administration recommendations: Building the agricultural bioeconomy: Investing in America’s future 

• GFI fact sheet: How alternative proteins expand opportunities for farmers and agriculture

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