Release No.: 137-14

Contact:

Sam Jones-Ellard (202) 660-2268

samuel.jones@ams.usda.gov

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2014 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the Soybean Request for Referendum began yesterday and runs through May 30, 2014, in USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) county offices.

The Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act requires that a request for referendum be held every five years. Producers participating in the voluntary referendum request must certify and provide supporting documentation that they, or the entity they are authorized to represent, were engaged in soybean production and paid an assessment between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2013. A referendum will be held if at least 10 percent of all eligible soybean producers, no more than one-fifth of which may be soybean producers in any one state, submit a request.

For the purposes of the 2014 Soybean Request for Referendum, the number of eligible soybean producers identified through FSA soybean acreage reports for crop years 2011 and 2012 is 569,998.

The United Soybean Board administers a coordinated soybean promotion and research program designed to expand uses of soybeans and soybean products in domestic and foreign markets.

For more information, contact James Brow, Agricultural Marketing Specialist, Research and Promotion Division, Livestock, Poultry and Seed Program, AMS, USDA, STOP 0251, Room 2610-S, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-0251; tel. (202) 720-0633,

e-mail James.Brow@ams.usda.gov; or fax (202) 720-1125.

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