The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a complaint in a New York federal court seeking an order that would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to respond to the organization’s request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for documents on “the agency’s proposed deregulation of herbicide-resistant crops.” NRDC v. USDA, No. 12-0795 (S.D.N.Y., filed February 6, 2012). According to the complaint, USDA “is currently considering petitions to deregulate several herbicide-resistant varieties of corn and soybeans, which, if granted, would significantly increase usage of the herbicides to which those genetically modified [GM] crops are resistant.” NRDC apparently submitted a FOIA request to USDA in October 2011, seeking records concerning the proposed agency action, as well as a “fee waiver on the grounds that disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest.” The deadline for a response, according to NRDC, was November 15, but USDA has…
Category Archives Department of Agriculture
The U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have announced a February 23, 2012, public meeting in College Park, Maryland, to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 6th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) on March 26-30 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. CCCF is responsible for establishing or endorsing maximum levels “for contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food and feed.” Agenda items will include draft maximum levels for melamine in liquid infant formula, arsenic in rice, and deoxynivalenol and its acetylated derivatives in cereals and cereal-based products. See Federal Register, February 3, 2012.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has issued a proposed rule that would regulate the use of synthetic methionine in organic poultry production after a current interim final rule expires on October 1, 2012. According to a February 6, 2012, Federal Register notice, the rule would amend the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List) to permit the following maximum levels of synthetic methionine per ton of feed: (i) two pounds for laying and broiler chickens; and (ii) three pounds for turkey and all other poultry. NOP has requested public comments on the proposed rule by April 6. The National List currently classifies methionine “as an essential amino acid because it cannot be biologically produced by poultry and is necessary to maintain viability.” The substance occurs naturally in feed sources that include blood meal, fish meal, crab meal, corn gluten meal, alfalfa meal, and sunflower…
A federal court in the District of Columbia has determined that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had the authority to and properly promulgated a rule “requiring that almonds produced domestically be pasteurized or chemically treated against bacteria.” Koretoff v. Vilsack, No. 08-1558 (D.D.C., decided January 18, 2012). So ruling, the court granted USDA’s motion for summary judgment. Further information about the challenge brought by U.S. almond growers appears in Issue 274 of this Update. The almond rule was adopted in response to Salmonella outbreaks traced to raw almonds in 2001 and 2004. USDA adopted it under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 and the California Almond Marketing Order (Almond Order), promulgated in 1950. At issue in the dispute between the U.S. almond growers and USDA was whether safety regulations are encompassed by the law’s use of the term “quality,” over which USDA specifically has regulatory…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have announced a February 14, 2012, public meeting in Arlington, Virginia, to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 44th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) on April 23-28 in Shanghai, China. CCPR is responsible for establishing maximum pesticide-residue limits in specific food items, food groups or in “certain animal feeding stuffs moving in international trade where this is justified for reasons of protection of human health.” See Federal Register, January 23, 2012.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a final rule updating the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs “to align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” Effective March 26, 2012, the rule seeks to reduce childhood obesity by requiring schools to (i) “increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals”; (ii) “reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals”; and (iii) “meet the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements.” According to USDA, the new standards reflect the recommendations of an Institute of Medicine expert panel as well as 132,000 public comments. Estimated to add $3.2 billion to school meal costs over five years, the final rule only partially implements the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010, which also includes a mandate to set nutritional standards for foods and beverages…
According to news sources, the Center for Food Safety, which lost its challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) decision to deregulate without restriction genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa, plans to appeal the matter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A federal court in California determined on January 5, 2012, that the law does not require the agency to “account for the effects of cross-pollination on other commercial crops” in assessing whether a new crop poses risks. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti also reportedly said that USDA lacks the authority to require a buffer zone between GE crops and conventional or organic crops. Noting that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the use of glyphosate on Roundup Ready® alfalfa, Conti further observed, “If plaintiffs’ allegations are true, then it is disturbing that EPA has yet to assess the effects of glyphosate on most of the species found near…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has reopened the comment period until January 17, 2012, on a proposed rule that would amend and republish the Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act’s “list of selected agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to animal or plant health, or to animal or plant products.” Details of the proposed rule were covered in Issue 412 of this Update. See Federal Register, December 15, 2011.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a proposed rule to “expand the circumstances under which FSIS will generically approve the labels of meat and poultry products.” Under the proposal, which would also combine regulations into a new CFR part, FSIS would reportedly allow establishments “to label a broader range of products without first submitting the label to FSIS for approval.” As the agency explained in a December 5, 2011, press release, “all mandatory label features would still need to comply with FSIS regulations.” In particular, FSIS noted that the current generic label regulations are too restrictive in practice, compelling the agency to pre-approve “a significant amount of labeling” instead of dedicating resources to other consumer protection and food safety activities. “For example, the label for a nonstandardized product, such as pepperoni pizza (bearing no special statements or claims) that was sketch approved…
Congress has approved and President Barack Obama (D) has signed a bipartisan agricultural spending bill (H.R. 2112) that will block or delay regulations aimed at making school lunches healthier. Signed into law on November 18, 2011, the bill will, among other things, prohibit the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from limiting starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, to two servings a week and will continue to allow two tablespoons of tomato paste to count as a vegetable. It will also require further study of USDA’s long-term sodium reduction requirements that would reduce by half the amount of sodium in school meals over the next 10 years. Although some lawmakers claim that the bill will prevent costly regulations and provide school districts greater flexibility in improving the quality of school meals, critics assert that it will keep schools from serving an array of vegetables while allowing foods such as french fries to remain…
