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USDA TO ASSEMBLE A TEAM OF SPECIALISTS TO MONITOR SEED COMPANIES' MARKETING MATERIALS
Mar. 12, 2024
Agri-Pulse reports:
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday announced a new website monitoring program, where USDA will hire specialists to evaluate whether seed companies are meeting standards under the Federal Seed Act.
Speaking at the National Farmers Union annual meeting, he said the specialists will also review packaging, pamphlets, PDFs and other marketing materials.
Building on a competition report and USDA's Farmer Seed Liaison initiative announced last year, Vilsack said he hopes to "hold people accountable" while also making germplasm more readily available to researchers, providing more potential for small seed companies and creating more competition for farmers.
Vilsack said he wants to make sure farmers are "well educated" as they're purchasing seed and understand whether or not the same traits available in brand name seeds can also be found in generic seeds.
"There's a lot of information that's available on the web. And there's a tendency on the part of all of us to say, 'Well, I read it on the internet, so it's kind of got to be true, right?' Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't," Vilsack explained.
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