Ag News Headlines, Wednesday Feb. 17, 2016

No GMO Bill Yet in Senate

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas said this week his genetically modified food labeling bill is not ready. Roberts told the Hagstrom Report he hopes his bill will be bipartisan, but he said what he introduces will be “a chairman’s mark” that can be amended. Roberts, along with the committee’s ranking Democrat Debbie Stabenow, have been attempting to write bills that would stop state laws from mandating labeling of foods containing GMO ingredients. The first of which is scheduled to take effect in Vermont this July. He added that he thinks action must come quickly because the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the conflict between Republicans and Democrats over whether a new justice should be brought up for confirmation before the election “will make it tougher and tougher down the road” to pass legislation on a bipartisan basis this year.

Egypt Rejects Canadian Wheat for Ergot

For the second time, Egypt has rejected a vessel carrying Canadian wheat because Egyptian officials found trace levels of the fungus ergot, but would not say the percentage found. Reuters reports the move by the quarantine authority is the latest in a series of rejections, which have caused serious concerns over Egypt’s tough new quality rules and disrupted the country’s massive wheat imports. Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer and is facing difficulties purchasing the grain in its import tenders since the first shipment rejection. Suppliers have refrained from making offers or added risk premiums to prices. Egypt’s supply ministry says the country would allow a 0.05 percent level of ergot, but the agricultural quarantine authority has insisted on a zero tolerance policy.

NAFB News