Texas Refineries Restart and Monsanto Dicamba Reaction
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**The tremendous resilience of the petroleum refining industry in Texas was reaffirmed last week as refiners began resuming operations following Hurricane Harvey.
According to Agri-Pulse, the affirmation came in the form of price shifts. Triple-A reported that U.S. average gasoline prices peaked at $2.65 a gallon after the hurricane, up from $2.35 a month earlier.
This return to more normal pricing comes despite earlier warnings the refining capacity along the Gulf Coast could take weeks or months to recover.
**Monsanto pushed back at Arkansas last week, rejecting a proposed April 15 cut-off date next year for sprayings of the herbicide dicamba, which has been linked to crop damage across the farm belt.
Reuters reports, Monsanto, BASF and DuPont sell dicamba herbicides to be sprayed on U.S. soybeans engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the chemical.
In July, Arkansas temporarily banned the use and sale of dicamba after farmers complained the chemical was drifting from where it was sprayed into neighboring fields and damaging crops.
**The USDA has released the results of a study on the feasibility of using digital or electronic labeling to identify genetically engineered foods. The study was required as part of the 2016 GMO labeling law which requires disclosure of biotech ingredients in foods.
According to Brownfield, the study found consumers will face a number of technological challenges in using their smartphones and other devices to get the information and that an extensive educational campaign will be needed.