Late Thursday evening, the U.S. Senate voted 63-30 to pass the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard that preempts individual state laws to require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow spent 24 minutes before the vote laying out logical reasons for the legislation, not the least of which was that it requires the …
Senate Vote on #GMO Labeling Expected This Week
The Senate is scheduled to vote to limit debate on the GMO labeling compromise from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow this week and agricultural organizations are urging their members to contact their senators about it. If the vote for cloture achieves 60 votes tomorrow after the Senate returns from the Independence Day recess the …
Nobel Laureates Say Stop Blocking Golden Rice
This morning three Nobel Laureates presented at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to call on Greenpeace, the United Nations and governments around the world to support GMOs. They are the public face of more than 100 Nobel Laureates who signed a letter asking that campaigns agains products like Golden Rice be abandoned. The letter condemns practices that are …
GROWMARK FS Members Meet With Paul Ryan
Twenty five GROWMARK FS general managers, board presidents, young farmer customers, and board and staff members were able to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan earlier this week at his office in the Capitol. Speaker Ryan outlined seven points of his agenda for next year, and attendees were able to discuss several issues important to the System, including GMO labeling. …
Safe Food Coalition Urges Senate to Act
The Coalition for Safe Affordable Food (CFSAF) and leaders of America’s agricultural and food industries are sounding the alarm that Congress needs to act immediately to pass a bipartisan solution before Vermont’s mandatory on-package labeling law goes into effect July 1. As of today, there are only seven days left on the legislative calendar before the state law is implemented …
Disappointment Over Senate GMO Labeling Vote
Despite the best efforts of Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Biotechnology Labeling Solutions Bill in a 48-49 vote today, blocking advancement of the legislation that would create a voluntary federal standard for labeling foods with genetically modified ingredients. Roberts expressed his disappointment at the inability to come to agreement on …
TPP is a Priority for SoyGrowers this Week
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and its impact on the soybean growers of this nation is a top issue for the American Soybean Association. Their annual spring meeting is being held this week in Washington D.C. and President Richard Wilkins has taken the opportunity to highlight what the agreement will mean to producers in a down farm economy. “We recognize that with …
GMO Answers Stands Up For Science
The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the controversial legislation surrounding GMO labeling were hot discussion topics at the 2016 Commodity Classic, with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressing the issue during the event, as well as several commodity groups. In the trade show, the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI) had a booth dedicated to GMO Answers, an …
Senate Ag Approves GMO Labeling Bill
The Senate Agriculture Committee today held a business meeting where the Chairman’s Mark on Biotechnology Labeling Solutions was favorably reported with a bipartisan vote of 14-6. The legislation, which creates a voluntary national labeling law for genetically modified products, now heads to the full Senate for consideration. “This is really a conversation about a few states dictating to every state …
Purdue President Calls for End to GMO Attacks
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels on Thursday (Feb. 25) called on leaders in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to push back against the attackers of biotechnology in agricultural production. Daniels was a keynote speaker at the annual Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington. “The attack on GMO technology is the most blatant anti-science of the age, but it is far …