Opposing the Farm Bill & GMO Vote

Opposing the Farm Bill & GMO Vote. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Last week’s announcement by the Senate of a first draft Farm Bill had a lot of people excited. Senate Ag Republican Chuck Grassley says it will take 60-votes to convince Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the committee-passed farm bill to the floor - and for the House to act on its own bill. The magic number is six-zero - to prevent a filibuster by southern senators who feel the farm bill passed in committee last week favors Midwest croups over rice, cotton and peanuts. Grassley says they need a selling job to convince Reid to move the bill.

GRASSLEY: If we can show Reid 60 votes, then we can ignore that. But if we can’t show Reid 60 votes to move the bill along then I think they are going to have tremendous leverage and I’m sure that’s why they voted against the farm bill.

Not sure what the ramifications might be but as long as enough signatures are validated - California voters are likely going to see a ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically modified foods in November. The California Right to Know campaign says it gathered more than 971-thousand signatures - nearly double the 555,236 required to qualify for the ballot. A bio-industry spokesperson says it’s unfortunate consumers are being dragged into the debate.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.