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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-funding-bill-strips-controversial-provision-on-genetically-modified-crops/2013/09/26/353247ae-26c4-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html
Senate funding bill strips controversial provision on genetically
modified crops
(edited)
The short-term spending plan moving through the Senate would eliminate
legislative language that allows farmers to continue growing genetically
modified crops even if a court has blocked their use.
The Farmer Assurance Provision - dubbed the Monsanto Protection Act by
its critics - was inserted into an earlier government funding bill. In
unusually direct language, the provision in the House bill instructs the
agriculture secretary to allow farmers or producers to continue to use GM
seeds and harvest crops grown with them even if a federal judge finds that
they pose a potential risk, overturns their approval, and orders more studies
of the plants.
Monsanto supports this provision.
But consumer groups, organic food advocates and others complained that
the measure provided a sweetheart deal for corporate interests and a dangerous
way to avoid court review of government agencies.
The Senate bill explicitly cuts the crops provision, a move that food
safety advocates hailed as an important victory.
Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) for
leading the effort in the Senate.
House aides said they did not expect the agricultural provision to be
reinserted.
As a possible sign of lessening support for the provision, the 2014
agriculture spending bills approved by the House and Senate appropriations
committees - but not the full House or Senate - did not contain the
measure.
"We take things year by year," said Jennifer Hing, communications
director for the House Appropriations Committee. "This year, a decision was
made not to continue it."
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