USDA Launches First Weekly Price Report for Non-GMO Corn and Soybeans
Understanding the growing demand for non-GMO corn and soybeans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agriculture Marketing Service has launched its first weekly price report for non-GMO corn and soybeans.
The report, which is based on data gathered from an undisclosed number of elevators, indicates that non-GMO feed corn is selling at significantly higher prices compared to conventional corn, and through its supplying of market information, could encourage more farmers to transition to organic, non-GMO grain production.
Companies “have come to us and said that one of the impediments to their growth…is getting producers to switch over, because there's not a lot of reliable information in terms of the prices being paid,” said Craig Morris, deputy administrator of AMS' livestock, poultry and seed program.
This new availability of information regarding non-GMO grain market prices could cause a sea-change in the industry which saw SunOpta Inc. become the first U.S. food manufacturing facility to be approved for a process verified program for non-GMO products this past May.
Meanwhile, the USDA is adding to its list of new specialty market price reports it is compiling including one for grass-finished beef begun in 2013. Within the next six months, the department will be issuing additional reports on pasture-raised pork, farm-raised catfish, free-range chicken, and commodities produced by American Indian tribes.
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