Request for Public Comments on How USDA Can Best Facilitate the Marketing of Grains, Oilseeds, Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts in Today's Evolving Marketplace

Resumen

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) invites comments from producers, handlers, processors, food manufacturers, exporters, consumers, scientists, industry representatives, and other interested persons on how USDA can best facilitate the marketing of grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, and nuts in a market that includes both crops derived from biotechnology and other crops. USDA is seeking comment on current and anticipated market practices, and on the feasibility of and need for USDA's involvement in quality assurance or other programs to facilitate the marketing of these products. This action is part of the Administration's biotechnology initiative announced last May. Its purpose is to lend order to the development of voluntary identity preservation and product segregation procedures to the extent they emerge from the private sector. (In the context of this notice, biotechnology refers to the use of recombinant DNA technology to alter or move genetic material for a plant to exhibit a desired trait.) Modern biotechnology may present new marketing opportunities as well as challenges. As biotechnology offers the possibility of accelerating the development of value-add