A bid by Shuanghui International, also known as Shineway, to purchase Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion became national news this week. Shuanghui is the majority shareholder of China’s largest meat processor and, according to the Wall Street Journal, sources most of its products from private farmers – a practice that has been scrutinized in China […]
Food Safety
House Subcommittee Debates 2014 Farm and Food Funding
Over the last two weeks, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee held a series of hearings to examine the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s and the Food and Drug Administration’s budget requests for fiscal year (FY) 2014. We previously posted about the first Subcommittee hearing of the year, which featured Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and the second […]
Senators Question Aspects of Proposed Food Safety Regulations
In a hearing about the agency’s proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget request, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Hamburg fielded questions from Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee members on a wide-ranging set of issues, from sequestration effects to cosmetics and food safety. Throughout the hearing, Senators raised issues and questions about the FDA’s proposed regulations on […]
Comment Period for New Food Safety Regulations Extended
At a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing today, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Hamburg said that the comment period on the two proposed food safety regulations currently open for comment would be extended by 120 days. The comment period was originally set to close on May 16, and with the extension, the comment period […]
NSAC Launches New Food Safety Site
Looking for information about the new proposed food safety regulations? Unsure about whether the proposed rules affect you? Want to comment on the proposed rules? Check out NSAC’s new food safety website! With the deadline for comment on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed food safety regulations fast approaching, NSAC has launched a new food […]
Final 2013 Funding Bill Clears Congress
On Thursday, March 21, the House of Representatives voted 318-109 to adopt the Senate-passed continuing appropriations resolution, which will fund federal programs through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2013. The House did not make any changes to the bill, as amended and passed by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 73-26. Conservation Stewardship […]
Comment on FDA Plan for Human Drugs Used in Food Animal Production
For many years, the Keep Antibiotics Working Campaign — a coalition of health, consumer, agricultural, environmental, humane, and other advocacy groups — has worked to eliminate the inappropriate use of antimicrobials, including antibiotics, in food animals. This use has been flagged as a major cause of resistance in numerous pathogens to antibiotics that are important […]
FDA Releases Food Safety Regulations
Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released two major proposed rules detailing standards for produce safety and preventive controls for human food production. FDA is also requesting comments on its draft risk analysis on activities conducted in a facility co-located on a farm. Releasing these rules is part of FDA’s implementation of the Food […]
Department of Justice Drops Monsanto Antitrust Investigation Without Explanation
In late November, U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division decided to drop its investigation of Monsanto’s control over much of the U.S. seed market. Monsanto has gained this control through the buyout of numerous seed companies and its use of the patent system to extract concessions from farmers who buy the seed. As noted by […]
FDA, Congress, and Courts Take Up Aresenic in Rice Issue
Background The November 2012 issue of Consumer Reports includes a report on arsenic in rice products that concludes that the levels of inorganic arsenic in rice products, including baby food, are at levels that trigger public health concerns. Ingestion of inorganic arsenic can result in cancer and other health disorders. There are federal drinking water […]
2012 Specialty Crop Block Grants and Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grants Announced
On Monday, October 1, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced a total of $101 million in funding for specialty crops through the 2012 Specialty Grant Program (SCBG) awards and the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) awards for 2012. The 2012 funding includes specialty crop block grants to each state funding 748 projects nationwide for a total of […]
Revised Version: Obama Administration Details Sequestration Cuts
On Friday, September 14, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a preliminary outline of how it would implement automatic budget cuts (known as sequestration) across government programs, as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). In early August 2012, Congress passed the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, which forced the Obama […]
USDA Launches Organic Literacy Initiative
On Tuesday, September 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a series of resources as part of its new Organic Literacy Initiative, an effort to help connect current and prospective organic farmers, ranchers, and processors with the USDA resources available to them. The purpose of the Organic Literacy Initiative is to provide USDA staff as […]
Fall 2012 National Organic Standards Board Meeting Announced
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will be holding its next meeting in Providence, RI, from October 15 to 18. The NOSB was established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and is charged with making recommendations on allowed and prohibited substances in organic production and handling, assisting in the development of standards for […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Local Food Marker Bill: Where Are We Now?
Last fall, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) introduced the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act to create jobs and spur economic development through food and farms. This bill funds and improves critical programs that create economic opportunities for farmers, support local and regional food systems, and improve food access for all. […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Agriculture Bill Includes Anti-Farmer, Anti-Environment Riders
The House Agriculture Committee farm bill that passed out of committee early yesterday morning includes a number of anti-regulatory riders. As we previously reported, the House mark included three riders before Committee markup began. The mark includes a provision that significantly weakens USDA’s ability to regulate the use of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The provision […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Draft House Farm Bill Drilldown
On July 5, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) released their draft farm bill ahead of the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill markup scheduled for next week beginning Wednesday, July 11. The bill generates $35 billion in savings by cutting over $16 billion from nutrition programs and more than $6 billion […]
House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee Passes FY2013 Funding Bill
UPDATED: June 18, 2012 On Wednesday, June 6, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved its FY 2013 agriculture appropriations bill. The spending bill covers the majority of the functions of USDA as well as the Food and Drug Administration. In late April, we happily reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2013 agriculture appropriations bill […]
Guest Blog: Institute of Medicine Report Highlights the Connections Between Health and Agriculture
We want to thank Becca Klein from NSAC member the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) for her contribution. Becca is the Health & Agriculture Policy Project Director at CLF, working to bring a health perspective to federal food and agriculture policy. Believe it or not, just because I work for an academic […]
USDA Announces Funding for SNAP EBT Equipment at Farmers Markets
On Wednesday, May 9, USDA announced $4 million in funding to expand EBT capacity at farmers markets across the U.S. as part of the Agency’s larger mission to improve healthy food access in low-income communities. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, provides benefits to recipients through an Electronic Benefit Transfer […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Markup – Research, Education, Extension
Note to Readers — This is the ninth in a series of posts on the 2012 Farm Bill reported out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 26. The bill that the Senate Agriculture Committee voted out of committee last week now makes its way to the Senate floor and hopefully will be taken up […]
House Sets Government Funding Allocations
On April 19, we reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee had approved discretionary spending allocations for the coming 2013 fiscal year. The size of the total spending pie, as laid out by the Committee, was completely consistent with the levels set by law in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Today, the House Appropriations Committee […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Research Drilldown
In sum, the research title of the recently released draft Senate farm bill was not a strong one for sustainable agriculture. NSAC and its member organizations had several proposals for how to strengthen the focus on research that benefits and is relevant for organic and sustainable production systems, contained in our platform, Farming for the […]
Request for Applications for Farm to School Grants
On April 17, USDA announced new funding that aims to provide fresh, healthy food for children in schools across America, and to bolster and sustain local farmers and ranchers. The agency said today that $3.5 million in funding will be available to help local school districts organize and implement Farm to School programs. These critical […]