The NAEGA Grades and Inspections Committee is coordinating with the National Grain and Feed Association’s Grades and Weights Committee to respond to U.S. Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) request for public comment on current Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) standards for canola, corn and soybeans as follows:

• Request for comments on canola standards can be found here.
• Request for comments on corn standards can be found here.   
• Request for comments on soybean standards can be found here.

Responses to all three requests are due December 3, 2018.

The Agency reports that the purpose of these requests for comments is to ensure that standards and official grading practices remain relevant and effective. While the standards and grading practices for all three commodities are relevant to NAEGA interests the soybean standards likely will need and attract the most attention given the ongoing issues with China, and in particular the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's inappropriate use of FM (a grain quality factor) on phytosanitary certificates (reserved for plant disease or plant pest matters).  We anticipate that soybean producer and marketing organizations will focus heavily on the definition and measurement of foreign material in the U.S. soybean standards.  There also may be consideration given to changing soybean FM to differentiate and account for soybean pieces and hulls, thereby more closely mirroring the BCFM factor in the corn standards.

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