The Senate will vote Wednesday (today) on whether or not to move ahead with cloture on the compromise GMO labeling bill put together by Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow. But they’ll have some new information to consider, which is a U.S. Department of Agriculture assessment that responds to detractors arguments against the bill. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released a report, at lawmakers’ request, that found the bill is full of loopholes. Stabenow asked USDA to respond to the FDA report. USDA sent a letter on Friday that says it will follow the spirit of the law in crafting the rules and will require labeling for all GMO ingredients.

Vermont’s GMO labeling law went into effect last Friday and will change what grocery shoppers see in stores across the state. WCAX-TV in Vermont reports that retailers across the state got word that some manufacturers would stop sending more than 3,000 products to the state. Some of the more easily recognized products include Pepsi Wild Cherry to whole wheat hot dog buns. Coca-cola was one of the first major manufacturers to announce they were pulling some products from the state. Some experts worry that fewer products will mean less competition and result in higher prices for shoppers in the state. However, retailers in Vermont are given a grace period to sell improperly labeled goods from store shelves before being fined.

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, which measures the overall health of the nation’s agriculture economy, turned higher in June with an index setting of 104, which is a seven-point increase over May’s report. June marked the third month in a row that the Ag Economy Barometer was much stronger than the record-low of 85 set back in March of this year. A key factor supporting an improving producer outlook is a stronger corn and soybean market, according to organizers of the poll. During June, prices traded in ranges not seen since 2015. A recent trend shows a strong difference between how producers feel about their individual operations against the overall health of the Ag economy. The number of farmers who think their operations will be financially worse off in the next year rose from 27 percent to 37 percent in June. The number of people in the survey expecting hard times financially in the overall Ag economy dropped from 75 percent in April to 65 percent in June. Other survey results also show that almost half of the producers surveyed expect some extreme weather events to impact overall crop yields this summer.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is suing Hormel Foods over Hormel’s labels describing some pork products as “natural,” claiming the labels are deceiving to customers. The ALDF filed the lawsuit last week in Washington, DC. Meatingplace reports the complaint takes aim at the processor’s Natural Choice brand of lunch meats and bacon, pitting its slogan “Make the Natural Choice” and claims like “100 percent Natural” and “All-Natural” against consumers’ understanding of what “natural” means. The lawsuit cites Consumer Reports research that found most consumers believe “natural” to mean animals were raised using “sustainable” farming techniques on “independent” family farms, and the products are free of artificial ingredients. USDA’s definition of “natural” is: “A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed.”

The Risk Management Agency for the Department of Agriculture said this week the final safety net provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill, which provide farmers and ranchers better protection from weather disasters, market volatility, and other risk factors, are now in place. The Agency says it has finalized an interim rule that completes provisions such as enterprise units for irrigated and non-irrigated crops, adjustment in actual production history to establish insurable yields, crop production on native sod, beginning farmer and rancher provisions, coverage levels by practice, and the authority to correct errors. All other provisions of the final rule remain unchanged. RMA Administrator Brandon Willis says the 2014 Farm Bill provisions, now final, “strengthen the safety net we provide.” RMA began implementing the provisions under an interim rule for the 2015 crop year.

U.S. Senate leadership has scheduled a vote next Wednesday on ending debate on the GMO labeling bill. The cloture vote is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, according to the Senate schedule. The bill needs 60 votes for approval to end debate and head for final passage, before moving to the House of Representatives. The vote was scheduled just a day after the Food and Drug Administration sent technical comments to Congress that were critical of the legislation. The comments come as an FDA spokesperson told The Hagstrom Report this week that the FDA “has not taken a position on the bill.” The comments by the FDA say the bill would give USDA labeling authority in an area that is usually reserved for the FDA, and that FDA has long held that foods developed with genetic engineering are safe and do not require labeling. Coauthor and Ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Debbie Stabenow replied saying the agreement places implementation with USDA because “this is not a food safety or human health issue.” A spokesperson for Committee Chairman Pat Roberts called the FDA comments “odd and misplaced.”