Corn Growers Endorse Kucinich Proposals
Wisconsin Ag Connection reports:
The American Corn Growers Association has endorsed several legislative initiatives introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) that address such issues as the area of genetically engineered (GE) foods, crops, and livestock. Kucinich, a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, recently introduced six bills, one of which would allow farmers the right to save seed, a touchy issue with biotech seed companies that require farmers to purchase new seed each year.
Another of Kucinich's bills would require food companies to label all foods containing ingredients from GE plants or animals. Yet another is designed to improve the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) oversight and testing of GE foods.
He also seeks new regulations on the production of pharmaceutical crops to help make certain there is no contamination of foods for human use. Also among the bills is one to expand research to help developing nations better feed themselves.
"These initiatives will help family farmers and ranchers through these awkward times as new technologies advance quicker than do the laws protecting those farmers and ranchers," said Larry Mitchell, CEO of ACGA. "It will also provide our customers, both domestic and international, the information and confidence they need in order to remain our customers."
Most agricultural groups, though, have taken a different view of biotechnology, opposing regulations in the European Union and other countries that would require labeling similar to what Kucinich wants to require in the United States.
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