When you’re at the store deliberating over which name-branded product to buy, you may notice a new label on certain products designating them as biobased. That’s because Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon be making it easier to recognize biobased products, thanks to a BioPreferred labeling rule currently in development.
“USDA will be reviewing comments made by the public, industry, government and members of the growing “sustainable/green” community to help us decide key biobased product labeling parameters,” says Kate Lewis with the USDA BioPreferred Program. “We hope to finalize the rule in 2010 and for the label to be on products on shelves by 2011.”
According to USDA, more than 15,000 biobased products have been identified that are currently available on the market. Many of these products contain soy. In fact, the soybean checkoff’s Soy Products Guide contains a listing of more than 1,000 soy-based products. These soy products range from plastics used in automobiles to hand sanitizers you may use at home.
Once the USDA labeling rule becomes final, manufacturers will be able to utilize the BioPreferred label to help customers identify their products as biobased. As a soybean farmer, this label will be a good thing. According to a soybean checkoff-funded study, 57 percent of consumers would be influenced to buy a biobased product if it had a label or logo indicating that it was biobased.
“The BioPreferred label will act as an additional tool for buyers to identify soy-based products,” says Lewis. “Easier identification will increase demand.”
For more information on the proposed rule, visit www.biopreferred.gov or for a listing of soy-based products currently available for purchase, visit the soybean checkoff’s online Soy Products Guide at www.soynewuses.org.
Checkoff Connection:
The soybean checkoff funds research focused on increasing new uses for the soybeans you grow. By 2010, industrial use is expected to be between 1.15 and 1.35 billion pounds of soybean oil, or the oil from nearly 120 million bushels. That’s up from 80 million bushels used in 2008.
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