U.S. National Corn Growers Association to address importance of transparency, scientific-basis in comments on BE disclosure standard

The National Corn Growers Association today provided feedback to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service as the Agency finalizes the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. The feedback, which came in the form of comments submitted directly by NCGA, comments submitted by a broader coalition of ag-focused organizations and a set jointly submitted by the entire Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, aims to help come to a final solution that is beneficial to consumers, farmers and food manufacturers, while preserving the original Congressional intent.

NCGA’s direct comments emphasized the association’s overriding concern that some of the options being considered could potentially harm U.S. agriculture and stifle American farming innovation. Above all else, the comments call upon AMS to ensure that the NBFDS is a marketing standard, not a health, safety or nutritional standard.

“Corn growers are striving to increase transparency in corn production and are engaged on several fronts defining our continuous improvements in sustainability,” NCGA’s comments explained. “Many of these gains over the last 20 years are due to technology advancements including seeds derived from transgenic biotechnology that offer improved water and nutrient use efficiency by better protecting crops while decreasing pesticide use. While this technology has no impact on the safety or nutritional content, we do recognize that there is a demand by the public to understand when this technology is used and is present in final food products. We support honest, accurate and unbiased labeling and as members of the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food, we support many of the Coalition’s comments and recommendations on the NBFDS.”

The comment period for the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard closes today. To see the full comments submitted by NCGA directly, click here.