Agricultural Marketing Service February 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action withdraws a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on July 27, 2009 (74 FR 36955), to amend the Blueberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order) by increasing the assessment rate on producers and importers who produce or import more than 2,000 pounds of highbush blueberries annually from $12 to $24 per ton. The Order is administered by the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (Council). Assessments are used by the Council to fund a nationally coordinated program of research, development, advertising, and promotion of highbush blueberries in the marketplace. The Council recommended increasing the assessment rate to expand its promotional and research activities to bridge the potential gap between demand and future supply. Several comments were received in opposition to the proposed increase in assessment rate. Accordingly, based upon comments received, the proposed rule is being withdrawn.

The purpose of this notice is to notify all interested parties that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will hold a Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee (Committee) meeting that is open to the public. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Committee to examine the full spectrum of issues faced by the fruit and vegetable industry and to provide suggestions and ideas to the Secretary of Agriculture on how USDA can tailor its programs to meet the fruit and vegetable industry's needs. This notice sets forth the schedule and location for the meeting.

This final rule amends livestock and related provisions of the NOP regulations. Under the NOP, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) oversees national standards for the production and handling of organically produced agricultural products. AMS has taken this action to ensure that NOP livestock production regulations have sufficient specificity and clarity to enable AMS and accredited certifying agents to efficiently administer the NOP and to facilitate and improve compliance and enforcement. This action is also intended to satisfy consumer expectations that ruminant livestock animals graze on pastures during the grazing season. This action provides clarification and specificity to the livestock feed and living conditions provisions and establishes a pasture practice standard for ruminant animals. In doing so, producers are required to: provide year-round access for all animals to the outdoors, recognize pasture as a crop, establish a functioning management plan for pasture, incorporate the pasture management plan into their organic system plan (OSP), provide ruminants with pasture throughout the grazing season for their geographical location, and ensure ruminants derive not less than an average of 30 percent of their dry matter intake (DMI) requirement from pasture grazed over the course of the grazing season. The proposed requirements for fencing of water bodies and providing water at all times, indoors and outdoors, and the requirement for a sacrificial pasture have been deleted in this final rule. In addition, the proposed amendment to the origin of livestock section has been deleted in this final rule as issues pertaining to that topic will be reviewed and evaluated separately from this action.

This rule establishes procedures which the Department of Agriculture (USDA or the Department) will use in conducting a referendum to determine whether the issuance of the proposed Processed Raspberry Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Proposed Order) is favored by producers of raspberries for processing and importers of processed raspberries. The Proposed Order will be implemented if it is approved by a simple majority of the eligible producers and importers voting in the referendum. These procedures will also be used for any subsequent referendum under the Proposed Order, if it is approved in the initial referendum. The Proposed Order is being published separately in this issue of the Federal Register. This proposed program is implemented under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act).

This rule invites comments on proposed changes to the reporting dates prescribed under the marketing order that regulates the handling of cranberries grown in the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Long Island in the State of New York. The order is administered locally by the Cranberry Marketing Committee (Committee). This rule would revise the due dates of handler reports to provide more time for handlers to file their reports with the Committee, and would improve handler compliance with the order's reporting regulations.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is adopting, as a final rule, without change, an interim final rule revising the regulatory period when minimum grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements apply to southeastern California grapes under Marketing Order No. 925 (order), and to imported grapes under the table grape import regulation, from April 20 through August 15 of each year to April 10 through July 10 of each year. The order regulates the handling of grapes grown in a designated area of southeastern California and is administered locally by the California Desert Grape Administrative Committee (Committee). The change to the regulatory period beginning date is needed to help ensure that imported table grapes marketed in competition with domestic grapes are subject to the grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements of the order. Section 8e of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (Act) provides authority for such change. The change to the regulatory period ending date is needed to realign the regulatory period with current shipping trends for grapes in the order's production area. This rule also continues in effect the action that clarified the maturity (soluble solids) requirements for southeastern California and imported Flame Seedless variety grapes.