Unfounded fears of genetically improved soybeans could kill small farms and hit Americans hard in the pocketbook. Even though the European Union (EU) has called genetically improved foods “even safer than conventional plants and foods,” the EU has proposed strict labeling standards that could force U.S. farmers to create “two separate production chains” or separate the improved beans from the conventional ones, bean by bean.
That “could easily double the price of soybeans,” protests Jerry Slocum, president of the North Mississippi Grain Company. Slocum says the proposed EU rules could impact thousands of American farms. “The way we read it, it leads all the way back to my farm in northern Mississippi.”
