USDA Articles
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Advisory Committee On Biotechnology And 21st Century Agriculture To Meet
On November 19, 2015, USDA published a Notice of the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) Meeting in the Federal Register. The meeting will review the purpose, history, operational process, and member responsibilities of AC21; update committee members on relevant regulatory developments, initiatives, and USDA activities; and outline new tasks for the committee ...
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USDA to Amend Guidelines for Designating Biobased Products for Federal Procurement
On July 5, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Procurement and Property Management published a final rule that will amend the Guidelines for Designating Biobased Products for Federal Procurement (Guidelines) to add 30 sections designating the product categories within which biobased products would be afforded procurement preference by federal agencies and their contractors. ...
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USDA now accepting applications for loan guarantees
On July 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA is accepting applications for loan guarantees up to $250 million through the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, formerly known as the Biorefinery Assistance Program. The funding is divided into rounds one and two with applications due on ...
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Genetic assessment of a mini-core subset developed from the USDA rice genebank
Development of core collections is an effective tool to extensively characterize large germplasm collections, and the use of a mini-core subsampling strategy further increases the effectiveness of genetic diversity analysis at detailed phenotype and molecular levels. We report the formation of a mini-core subset containing 217 entries derived from 1794 core entries representing the genetic ...
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USDA amends BCAP
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a final rule amending the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to implement changes required by the 2014 Farm Bill. BCAP provides financial assistance to owners and operators engaged in biomass crops, including collection, harvest, storage, and transportation. The final rule does not alter the scope of the BCAP but does reduce the ...
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Two Malama Composites BioFoams Earn USDA Biobased Product Label
On August 26, 2015, Malama Composites, Inc. (Malama) announced that its Studio BioFoam® product had earned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Biobased Product Label. This news was followed by a second announcement on August 27, 2015, when another biobased foam produced by Malama, Pacific BioFoam™, also received the Biobased Product Label from the USDA. Malama is a ...
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U.S. Senator John Kennedy Submits Letter to USDA Secretary on SRE
On June 27, 2019, U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) submitted a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Purdue asking him to stop threatening energy jobs in Louisiana. In his letter to Secretary Purdue, Senator Kennedy outlines concerns related to Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE) issued by EPA under the RFS program. Of particular concern to Senator Kennedy are reports that Secretary Purdue continues to ...
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Government`s food regressions: FDA and USDA
Abstract: Republished from www.foodpolitics.com with kind permission of the author It’s pretty depressing to watch what’s happening to the gains in food and nutrition policy so hard won in the last few years. Nothing but bad news: Menu labeling: The FDA is submitting interim final rules, a tactic to delay implementation of menu labeling, which was supposed to start on May 5. Why? ...
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Pesticide decay in turf: A review of processes and experimental data
Received for publication November 26, 2007. Decay rates are central parameters in modeling pesticide fate and transport in the environment. Pesticide decay is usually modeled as a first-order process, and variations in half-life can have significant impacts on model predictions. Decay rates for the foliage and thatch components of turf are scarce, and most simulation efforts must resort to values ...
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Invasion of non–indigenous insects: the impact of quarantine laws
The success rate of invasive species control programmes is usually inferred from the species identification record. However, identifications may not happen concurrently with species introductions. Some species prevented from arriving also remain undetected by authorities. This study accounts for these possibilities and provides an estimate of the historic success of quarantine laws at limiting ...
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Ethanol and agricultural groups send USDA a letter in favor of ethanol funding
On March 26, 2015, a group of ethanol and agricultural groups sent a letter (the industry letter) to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies to express their strong opposition to including certain language harmful to the ethanol industry in the Fiscal Year 2016 Agriculture, Rural ...
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Take action to stop Chinese chicken imports
In August of 2013 the New York Times reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave the green light to four Chinese poultry processors to ship processed poultry to the United States. The move was aimed to only allow the export of birds killed and slaughtered in the United States or Canada, but the move sets a dangerous precedent towards allowing the export of Chinese poultry. In ...
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EPA`s Proposed Public Participation Process for Reregistration - Almost, But Not Quite There
On March 15, 2000, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Federal Register notice outlining a proposed process for public participation for pesticide tolerance reassessment and reregistration and asking for comment. The process had been developed in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and used on a pilot basis since August 1998 for ...
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USDA Give A Little More Background On Rancho Recall
The United States Department of Agriculture has gone to great lengths in alerting consumers to the scope of the Rancho Feeding Corporation recall of beef, which has wide scale implications throughout the US market and some shipments overseas. The USDA Food Safety Inspection Service branch clarified previous recall notifications of the Rancho issue due to the alarmingly widespread scope of the ...
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USDA announces energy efficiency and renewable energy grants
On April 22, 2015, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack celebrated Earth Day by announcing that USDA "is providing more than $112 million in loans and grants to help rural communities build and upgrade their water and energy infrastructure systems." The funding for the energy infrastructure programs is provided through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), and funds ...
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Genetically Engineered Organisms Face Changing Regulations
Untitled Document In late January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its intent to make weeping changes to the regulations that apply to genetically engineered organisms. The revisions promise to have significant, farreaching and long-lasting implications for the agricultural, pharmaceutical and ...
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USDA issues final rule amending voluntary labeling program for biobased products
On June 15, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued final amendments to the regulations concerning the Voluntary Labeling Program for Biobased Products. The rule is intended to incorporate statutory amendments to Section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act signed into law on February 2, 2014. Among other changes, USDA has deleted the definitions of "BioPreferred ...
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Indigo Agriculture Shares February Corn and Soybean Yield Forecasts for the Americas
Indigo announced yield forecasts in January for corn and soybeans across the Americas, democratizing data for the grower community to better navigate global markets during the U.S. government shutdown. With the shutdown, the doors of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had closed. No work in that department meant that there was an indefinite hold on a key report, known as the World ...
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Associations among lint yield, yield components, and fiber properties in an introgressed population of cotton
Broadening the genetic base is essential for genetic improvement of lint yield and fiber quality in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). An exotic germplasm population derived from multiple crosses between G. barbadense L. and G. hirsutum was obtained from USDA-ARS at Las Cruces, NM. Experiments were designed to evaluate this germplasm for genotypic variation in lint yield and fiber quality. ...
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USDA Announces $3.8 Million Awarded in Grants for Nano Research
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced on April 27, 2015, that it awarded more than $3.8 million in grants “focused on using nanotechnology to find solutions to societal challenges such as food security, nutrition, food safety, and environmental protection.” The grants were made through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food ...
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