Agricultural Marketing Service 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule amends the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List) provisions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) organic regulations to implement recommendations submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). This rule changes the use restrictions for seventeen substances allowed for organic production or handling on the National List. This rule also adds sixteen new substances on the National List to be allowed in organic production or handling. In addition, this final rule lists the botanical pesticide, rotenone, as a prohibited substance in organic crop production. This final rule removes ivermectin as an allowed parasiticide for use in organic livestock production and amends our regulations to allow the use of parasiticides in fiber bearing animals. Finally, this rule inserts corrections of instructions and regulation text as listed in the proposed rule.

This rule establishes the new national mandatory bioengineered (BE) food disclosure standard (NBFDS or Standard). The new Standard requires food manufacturers, importers, and other entities that label foods for retail sale to disclose information about BE food and BE food ingredients. This rule is intended to provide a mandatory uniform national standard for disclosure of information to consumers about the BE status of foods. Establishment and implementation of the new Standard is required by an amendment to the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the designation of D.R. Schaal Agency, Inc. (Schaal) to provide official services under the United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA), as amended. The realignment of offices within the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized by the Secretary's Memorandum dated November 14, 2017, eliminates the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) as a standalone agency. The grain inspection activities formerly part of GIPSA are now organized under AMS.

This proposed rule invites comments on a recommendation from the Processed Pear Committee (Committee) to change the Committee's membership structure. This action would remove the second alternate member position from the Committee structure, leaving ten member positions and one alternate position for each respective member.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), this notice announces AMS's intention to request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve a 3-year extension and revision to a currently approved information collection; a voluntary customer survey concerning the delivery of official inspection, grading, and weighing services authorized under the United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA) and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (AMA). OMB approved this information collection as OMB 0580-0018 under Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards (GIPSA). Due to the realignment of offices authorized by the Secretary's memorandum dated November 14, 2017, which eliminated the GIPSA as a standalone agency, the grain inspection activities formerly part of GIPSA are now under the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and assigned a new OMB control number of 0581-0310. This voluntary survey gives customers who are primarily in the grain, oilseed, rice, lentil, dry pea, edible bean, and related agricultural commodity markets an opportunity to provide feedback on the quality of services they receive and provides AMS with information on new services that customers wish to receive. Customer feedback assists Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) with enhancing the value of services and service delivery provided by the official inspection, grading, and weighing system.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The NOSB assists the USDA in the development of standards for substances to be used in organic production and advises the Secretary of Agriculture on any other aspects of the implementation of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA).

This rulemaking proposes amendments to Marketing Order No. 981, which regulates the handling of almonds in California. The Almond Board of California (Board) recommended changing the dates associated with the process to nominate members to the Board as well as the start of the term of office of members of the Board. The Board also recommended adding authority to allow future revisions of the nomination methods and term of office start date through the development of regulations using informal rulemaking.

This rule implements a recommendation from the Texas Valley Citrus Committee (Committee) to decrease the assessment rate established for the 2018-19 and subsequent fiscal periods. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This proposed rule would implement a recommendation from the California Date Administrative Committee (Committee) to increase the assessment rate for the 2018-19 and subsequent crop years for California dates handled under Marketing Order 987. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This proposed rule would implement a recommendation from the Raisin Administrative Committee (Committee) to increase the assessment rate established for the 2018-19 and subsequent crop years. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This final rule amends Marketing Order No. 982 (Order), which regulates the handling of hazelnuts grown in Oregon and Washington. The amendments were proposed by the Hazelnut Marketing Board (Board) and add the authority to regulate quality for the purpose of pathogen reduction and to establish different regulations for different markets. This final rule also makes administrative revisions to subpart headings to bring the language into conformance with the Office of Federal Register requirements.

This rule implements a recommendation to change the container requirements under the Marketing Order for oranges and grapefruit grown in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. This action removes five containers from the list of authorized containers and adds seven new containers to the list. This change also modifies the descriptions of two authorized containers.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is amending the U.S. Standards for Grades of Shelled Pecans and the U.S. Standards for Grades of Pecans in the Shell. The revisions include replacing the term ``midget'' with ``extra small'' in the Shelled Pecan standards and removing references to plastic models of pecan kernels and information on where the color standards may be examined from both standards.

This action informs the public that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is withdrawing a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2016, that proposed to amend Quality Systems Verification Program (QSVP) regulations. Upon further review, the agency has decided to clarify that all voluntary, user-fee services under this part are applicable to all commodities covered by the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (Act), as amended. Accordingly, a proposed rule covering all audit-based services is forthcoming from the agency.

This final rule implements a recommendation from the Idaho- Eastern Oregon Potato Committee (Committee) to revise the varietal classifications that determine the size requirements for Irish potatoes grown in certain designated counties of Idaho, and Malheur County, Oregon. As provided under section 8e of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, this modification also applies to all imported long type Irish potatoes. This final rule also makes administrative revisions to the subpart headings to bring the language into conformance with the Office of Federal Register requirements.

This proposal invites comments on changing the National Honey Board (Board) importer-handler member and alternate to an importer member and alternate. The Honey Packers and Importers Research, Promotion, Consumer Education and Industry Information Order (Order) is administered by the Board with oversight by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This proposal would also update the definition for the term Board to reflect current practices, and make clarifying and conforming changes to other provisions of the program.

This rule implements a recommendation from the Cherry Industry Administrative Board (Board) to establish free and restricted percentages, or the proportion of 2017 tart cherries which may be handled in commercial outlets, for the 2017-18 crop year under the Marketing Order for tart cherries grown in the states of Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) intention to request approval for ballots and a petition form used to collect nominations of members and alternates to serve on the Board. Once approved, the forms would be merged with other forms the Board and AMS uses to collect information under Federal Marketing Order No. 981, Almonds Grown in California.

This proposed rule would implement a recommendation from the Processed Pear Committee (Committee) to decrease the assessment rate established for ``summer/fall'' varieties of pears for canning for the 2018-2019 and subsequent fiscal periods. The assessment rate would remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

This rule implements a recommendation from the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee (Committee) to increase the assessment rate established for Area No. 2 for the 2018-2019 and subsequent fiscal periods. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

The Agricultural Marketing Service is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on July 12, 2018. The document implemented new information collection and reporting requirements for a handler diversion under the Cranberry marketing order (Order).

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is amending the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations, increasing the value assigned to imported cotton for the purposes of calculating supplemental assessments collected for use by the Cotton Research and Promotion Program. This amendment is required each year to ensure that assessments collected on imported cotton and the cotton content of imported products will be the same as those paid on domestically produced cotton. In addition, AMS is updating the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) statistical reporting numbers that were amended since the last assessment adjustment in 2017.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposes to revise the U.S. Standards for Grades of Canned Lima Beans, U.S. Standards for Grades of Canned Mushrooms, U.S. Standards for Grades of Pickles, and U.S. Standards for Grades of Green Olives. AMS is proposing to replace the term ``midget'' with ``petite'' in the canned lima bean, canned mushroom, and pickle standards, and to remove ``midget'' completely from the green olive standards as there is an alternative term. AMS is also proposing to replace the two-term grading system (dual nomenclature) with a single term to describe each quality level in the canned lima bean, canned mushroom, and green olive standards. Editorial changes would also be made to the grade standards that conform to recent changes made in other grade standards.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to assist the USDA in the development of standards for substances to be used in organic production and to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on any other aspects of the implementation of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA).

This rulemaking proposes amendments to Marketing Order No. 959, which regulates the handling of onions grown in South Texas. The proposed amendments would reduce the size of the South Texas Onion Committee (Committee) and make conforming and clarifying amendments as needed.