USDA’s GMO Labeling; Dow Studies Dicamba Improvements
**To help determine how to implement the GMO labeling law signed into law last year, USDA’s Ag Marketing Service has questioned stakeholders on topics from how to deal with allowable thresholds for bioengineered substances TO the specific labeling language allowed.
That’s left AMS with a lot to chew on before it proposes labeling regulations that go into effect in just 10 months.
However, major players caution USDA not to imply in any way, shape or form that bioengineered products are unsafe OR unhealthy.
**Experts have launched an ambitious search for potential “moon shots” that could improve farm production, food processing and human nutrition to satisfy changing consumer expectations.
With the support of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, “Science Breakthroughs 2030: a Strategy for Food and Agricultural Research,” is funded by a wide range of farm and food organizations.
The committee recently heard several ideas about identifying the most serious challenges and the greatest opportunities facing food and agriculture for the coming decades.
**Considering the problems farmers and applicators, AND manufacturers, are experiencing with dicamba this year, one could reasonably wonder whether it makes sense to bet on its future in agriculture.
But Dow AgroSciences says it’s been making a significant investment in developing new low-drift and low-volatility formulation technology for dicamba and other auxin-based herbicides.
Dow researchers tell Agri-Pulse it’s still early in the process and they aren’t sharing data at this point, but extensive lab and greenhouse testing looks promising.