On the recordJuly 7, 2016
Mr. President, I am pleased that it looks like we are going to be voting this afternoon on a measure that would, for the first time, give American families access to GMO information about the food they buy. As my colleague from Kansas prepares to leave the Chamber, I just want to express my thanks to him, to his staff, to Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and her staff, and a lot of others, including members of my own staff, and the administration--especially Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture--for the work that they and many others have done to bring us to this point in this important debate. I was with the Aspen Institute seminar visit to Tanzania about a year ago. We got into a discussion with a lot of young African leaders and scholars, and a number of Democratic and Republican House Members and Senate Members. The debate ended up going into an area I never expected it to go. We ended up talking about drought in Africa. We ended up talking about what is going on with climate change that exacerbates their problems with raising crops. We talked about how it might be possible for them to use genetically modified seeds to better endure and survive drought and to enable them to maybe raise some crops that would be healthier for their constituents. We ended up in an interesting debate on sound science with respect to sea level rise and climate change.…





