Washington, DC, USA
July 10, 2014
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that it will not conduct a continuance referendum on the Soybean Promotion and Research Order, based on the results of a recent soybean Request for Referendum. The Request for Referendum was held from May 5 through May 30, 2014, at USDA's 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, which was conducted in 1994. The Request for Referendum determines if there is sufficient interest among soybean producers to have a vote on whether to continue the Order. The last Request for Referendum was held in May 2009.
If at least 10 percent of the 569,998 soybean producers (not more than one-fifth of whom may be from any one state) nationwide participated in the Request for Referendum, a referendum would have been held. There were 355 soybean producers who participated in the Request for Referendum, and only 324 of them submitted valid requests -- far short of the 56,999 participants required to trigger a referendum. State-by-State results are as follows:
State-by-State Soybean Request for Referendum Results
State Valid Petitions
- Alabama 0
- Alaska 0
- Arizona 0
- Arkansas 0
- California 0
- Colorado 0
- Connecticut 0
- Delaware 3
- Florida 0
- Georgia 0
- Hawaii 0
- Idaho 0
- Illinois 43
- Indiana 48
- Iowa 56
- Kansas 6
- Kentucky 2
- Louisiana 0
- Maine 0
- Maryland 1
- Massachusetts 0
- Michigan 10
- Minnesota 25
- Mississippi 0
- Missouri 9
- Montana 0
- Nebraska 2
- Nevada 0
- New Hampshire 0
- New Jersey 0
- New Mexico 0
- New York 1
- North Carolina 5
- North Dakota 3
- Ohio 73
- Oklahoma 2
- Oregon 0
- Pennsylvania 2
- Rhode Island 0
- South Carolina 0
- South Dakota 17
- Tennessee 0
- Texas 2
- Utah 0
- Vermont 0
- Virginia 1
- Washington 0
- West Virginia 7
- Wisconsin 6
- Wyoming 0
National Total 324
A notice of the results of the Request for Referendum will be published in the Federal Register in the near future. For additional information, contact James R. Brow, Research and Promotion Division, Livestock, Poultry and Seed Program, Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., STOP-0251, Room 2610-S, Washington, D.C. 20090-0251; telephone (202) 720-0633; fax (202) 720-1125; or e-mail james.brow@ams.usda.gov.
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