During the recent session of the Arkansas legislature, competing bills were introduced to regulate plant-made pharmaceutical crops in the state. The first, Senate Bill 318 (SB318), called for a ban, with rare exceptions, on growing plant-made Pharmaceuticals. It didn't make it out of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The second, House Bill 2574 (HB2574), was more lenient toward such crops. After several weeks of debate, HB2574 passed the legislature. At the time, there was much speculation that agricultural researchers in the state had been closely involved with HB2574. Bill Reed, Riceland Foods vice president, confirmed that in a mid-March interview. "The industry -Farm Bureau, Arkansas Rice Producers, the Southern Crop Production Association, theuniversity research divisions, the Arkansas Plant Board and others - put together a bill we believe provides a balanced approach to this situation."
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