Department of Agriculture August 28, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Forest Service is issuing an interim directive to Forest Service Handbook 1909.12, chapter 60, to guide agency employees on timber and forest vegetation resource planning, including guidance on identifying lands generally suitable for timber production and long- term sustained-yield capacity. This interim directive revises Forest Service Handbook 1902.1260, issued January 31, 2006. The intended effect of issuance of this interim directive is to provide consistent overall guidance to Forest Service line officers and agency employees in developing, amending, or revising land management plans for units of the National Forest System regarding forest vegetation resource planning. Public comment is invited and will be considered in developing a final directive.

FSIS is conforming its regulations to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) regulations, entitled, ``Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling of Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Goat Meat, Perishable Agricultural Commodities, Peanuts, Pecans, Ginseng, and Macademia Nuts.'' Therefore, FSIS is amending its regulations to require that a country of origin statement on the label of any meat or poultry product that is a covered commodity, as defined in AMS' interim final regulations (73 FR 45106), and is to be sold by a retailer, as also defined in AMS' interim final regulation, must comply with AMS' interim final regulations. FSIS is also amending its regulations to provide that the addition of country of origin statements on labels of meat or poultry product covered commodities that are to be sold by covered retailers and that comply with the country of origin labeling requirements will be considered to be generically approved. FSIS is not amending its regulations or labeling policies for meat or poultry products that are non-covered commodities. The effective date of AMS' interim final rule for country of origin labeling is September 30, 2008. Therefore, in order to meet the deadline, FSIS is issuing this interim final rule.