Farm Bureau Calls For Renewed, Reliable Grain Inspection Standards

The American Farm Bureau Federation urged Congress today to reauthorize the Grain Standards Act. South Carolina Farm Bureau President David Winkles called the act critical to ensuring the integrity and reliability of America’s grain trade, in his testimony before a House Agriculture subcommittee.

“Our grain inspection system has earned worldwide recognition as being reliable and impartial,” Winkles said. But U.S. grain trade was jeopardized when a labor dispute led to the shutdown of grain inspection services out of the Port of Vancouver last summer. These disruptions bring chaos to the marketplace and threaten customer relationships that have taken years to build: farmers, local businesses and consumers around the world pay the price.