Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to urge all my colleagues to stop denying science and to start understanding that GMO ingredients are just as healthy for American consumers as any other ingredient. We all recognize that there are a fair number of consumers--some of whom we heard from loudly yesterday--who have concerns. So as we address this issue and as we see the growing interest in knowing more about ingredients in our food, the more we realize that we can't have 50 States--and even the potential of some political subdivisions--passing different labeling standards. We have to have a unified labeling standard. But I think I have been disturbed over the last couple months as we have debated this issue from the standpoint of a public health issue and not a consumer issue. I think it is critically important that we set the record straight on genetically modified ingredients and that we make sure everyone in our country understands the science of what we have been doing over almost centuries of work in growing more resilient and better yielding crops. We wouldn't be able to do that in America today or across the world without genetics, without actually looking at applying science to the work we do in agriculture. As I have said on this floor many times, North Dakota prides itself in being the top producer of a wide variety of crops, and our diversity is something I am particularly proud of. This includes conventionally bred, organic, and genetically modified, or GMO, crops.…”