The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces that it will not conduct a referendum to decide if the Soybean Promotion and Research Order will be continued. The decision is a result of a soybean Request for Referendum held May 6-31, 2019, through USDA Farm Service Agency county offices.
The Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act requires the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a Request for Referendum every five years after the initial referendum to determine if there is sufficient interest among soybean producers to vote on whether to continue the Order. The last Request for Referendum was held in May 2014.
During the recent Request for Referendum 791 soybean producers participated with 708 submitting valid requests. To initiate a continuance referendum, at least 10 percent, or 51,501, of the 515,008 soybean producers nationwide had to vote in the Request for Referendum with not more than one-fifth of the voting participants from any one state.
Results showing states with valid petitions are as follows:
Alabama 1
Alaska 0
Arizona 0
Arkansas 7
California 0
Colorado 1
Connecticut 0
Delaware 3
Florida 0
Georgia 1
Hawaii 0
Idaho 0
Illinois 177
Indiana 97
Iowa 94
Kansas 39
Kentucky 5
Louisiana 0
Maine 0
Maryland 10
Massachusetts 0
Michigan 5
Minnesota 38
Mississippi 5
Missouri 31
Montana 0
Nebraska 17
Nevada 0
New Hampshire 0
New Jersey 0
New Mexico 0
New York 1
North Carolina 3
North Dakota 15
Ohio 117
Oklahoma 0
Oregon 0
Pennsylvania 8
Puerto Rico 0
Rhode Island 0
South Carolina 0
South Dakota 18
Tennessee 2
Texas 0
Utah 0
Vermont 0
Virginia 2
Virgin Islands 0
Washington 0
West Virginia 1
Wisconsin 10
Wyoming 0
National Total 708
A notice of the results of the Request for Referendum will be published in the Federal Register. For more information, contact Sarah Aswegan at (515) 201-5190 or Sarah.Aswegan@usda.gov. You may also write to Research and Promotion Division, Livestock and Poultry Program, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., STOP-0251, Room 2610-S, Washington, D.C. 20090-0251.
Since 1966, Congress has authorized the development of industry-funded research and promotion boards to provide a framework for agricultural industries to pool their resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research and promotion activities. AMS provides oversight of 22 boards, paid for by industry assessments, which helps ensure fiscal accountability and program integrity.
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