The committee drafting an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Sustainable Agriculture Standard (SCS-001) has published its first quarterly e-newsletter to report on standard development activities and solicit donations to support the work. The newsletter provides the names of those recently appointed to serve on the standards committee and includes subcommittee reports. The next meeting will apparently be scheduled sometime between March and June 2010 at the University of Arkansas. Shook, Hardy & Bacon attorneys James Andreasen and Chris McDonald have been monitoring the committee’s work on behalf of a coalition of stakeholders concerned about early drafts developed without industry input.
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has issued a report calling for Americans to join her in a “national grassroots effort” to reverse the “crisis” of overweight and obese adults and children. The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation 2010 warns that if the trend continues, many children “will be afflicted in early adulthood with medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.” The report’s recommendations include (i) making healthy choices at home by consuming less sodas and juices with added sugars and eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains; (ii) creating healthy schools by providing fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, water, and low fat beverages; and (iii) creating healthy work sites that promote healthy eating in cafeterias.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a proposed rule that “would require persons who intend to manufacture, import, or process [multi-walled carbon nanotubes] for an activity that is designated as a significant new use by this proposed rule to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing that activity.” The activities identified in the proposed rule as “a significant new use” are (i) “protection in the workplace” (“full-face respirators with N100 cartridges”), and (ii) “industrial, commercial, and consumer activities” (“additive/filler for polymer composites and support media for industrial catalysts”). According to the notice, EPA has issued the proposal under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and would adopt the 90-day notice requirement to give the agency the opportunity to evaluate the intended use and “prohibit or limit that activity before it occurs,” if necessary. Comments must be submitted by March 5, 2010. See Federal Register, February 3,…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced its intention to abandon the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and develop a “new, flexible framework for animal disease traceability,” citing public feedback and input from states, tribal nations, industry groups, and small and organic farmers. Created in 2004, NAIS aimed to register all domestic livestock in a national database to facilitate the response of state and federal officials during a disease outbreak. The system apparently drew criticism from many quarters that objected to both the cost and intrusiveness of the measure, which some felt would eventually become mandatory. Unveiled at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Mid-Year Meeting, the new initiative outlines “the basic tenets of an improved animal disease traceability capability in the United States.” According to USDA, this framework will (i) “Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce”; (ii) “Be administered by the States and…
The Council of Better Business Bureaus’ National Advertising Division (NAD), which serves as the investigative arm of the advertising industry’s voluntary self-regulation program, has recommended that Heartland Sweeteners cease making some claims about its Ideal® sweetener product. The recommendation apparently followed a complaint by Merisant Co., a Heartland competitor, that Ideal® is not “natural” or “more than 99 percent natural” as the company claims because the majority of its sweetness comes from the artificial sweetener sucralose. While Heartland agreed that its sweetener contains sucralose, the company contends that the natural sweetener Xylitol is the product’s main ingredient. According to NAD, Ideal® as a whole may be “more than 99% natural,” but “the context in which it is presented may still cause it to convey a message that is false or misleading to consumers.” NAD found that the product’s sweetness is “not due primarily to Xylitol, but, rather, the synthetic sucralose it…
New York Assemblyman Nelson Castro (D-86) has proposed an amendment (A09754) to the state’s agriculture and markets law that would require a warning label on all energy drinks. Citing “serious health risks including heart attack, stroke and even heart disease,” the provision calls for product warnings to appear in a black box and in letters “not less than eight point type.” It would also impose civil liability fines of $1,000 per violation. But unlike a similar proposal in Kentucky that reportedly focuses on caffeine content, the New York law defines an energy drink as containing “a combination of some or all of the following ingredients: sugar, methylkanthines, caffeine, vitamin E, herbs, guarana, açai, taurine, ginseng, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine, creatine, glucuro-nolactone and ginkgo biloba.” This definition would exclude coffee, according to a January 26, 2010, article in Law360, which noted that the American Beverage Association has questioned the practicality of enforcing…
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has been gathering information from companies that produce or import carbon nanotubes in the state and has posted the information received by its January 22, 2010, deadline on the agency’s website. The agency has also indicated which companies did not submit the information requested; a news source reports that DTSC may take action through the attorney general’s office against them. DTSC launched the information call-in program in 2009, hoping to identify information gaps and build data about carbon nanotubes. Manufacturers and importers were requested to supply information about “analytical test methods, fate and transport in the environment, and other relevant information.” The agency’s initial request involved reactive nanometal oxides, including aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, and zinc dioxide. It has since identified as nanomaterials of interest nano silver, nano zerovalent iron and cerium oxide. According to a press report, agency sources have…
The Washington and Wisconsin legislatures have reportedly passed bills that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sipping cups and other food and beverage containers intended for children younger than age 3. In light of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to reassess the plasticizer’s safety, the Washington House of Representatives voted 95-1 in favor of legislation (H. 1180) that would prohibit BPA in bottles, cups or other containers designed primarily for this age group, as well as any sports water bottles, as of July 1, 2011. The bill now heads to the Senate, where the Health and Long-Term Care Committee has delivered a similar version to legislators. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Senate has adopted its own BPA measure (S. 127), an identical version of which has already passed the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee and now awaits that chamber’s approval. In addition, Vermont lawmakers recently…
In a development only recently noticed in the United States, New Zealand’s Commerce Commission took action in late 2009 against a poultry producer that claimed its chickens contained no genetically modified (GM) ingredients. According to a November 18, 2009, commission news release, Inghams Enterprises (NZ) Pty. Limited was warned that it risked breaching the Fair Trading Act by stating that its chicken products contained “No . . . GM ingredients” and “have no added hormones, GM ingredients or artificial colours,” when the company’s chickens were fed with a product that contained 13 percent GM soy. The commission based its action on a report issued by a Canterbury University genetics and molecular biology professor who concluded that “GM plant material can transfer to animals exposed to GM feeds in their diets or environment, and that there can be a residual difference in animals or animal-products as a result of exposure to GM…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration have announced a February 8, 2010, public meeting to discuss draft U.S. positions for the 42nd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) slated for March 15-19, 2010, in Beijing, China. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the meeting will include discussions concerning (i) “endorsement and/or revision of maximum levels for food additives and processing aids in [C]odex standards”; (ii) “draft and proposed draft food additive provisions of the General Standards for Food Additives (GSFA)”; (iii) “proposals for changes or additions to the International Numbering System (INS) for food additives”; (iv) “identification of problems and recommendations related to the inconsistent presentation of food additives provisions in Codex commodity standards; and (v) “the Codex standard for food grade salt.” See Federal Register, January 28, 2010.
