USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has chosen sides in the biotech labeling debate, and it is with the mandatory approach of his political compatriots in the Senate.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has chosen sides in the biotech labeling debate, and it is with the mandatory approach of his political compatriots in the Senate. He says he prefers the industry’s proposed SmartLabel approach that utilizes QR codes and the Internet, but he calculates that only a mandatory approach supported by GM opponents and the party in the minority on Capitol Hill is passable? Secretary Vilsack met with both sides in the fight to implausibly try and find a compromise. Unfortunately, he never took the one step that could have worked – federal preemption. F...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
