FDA
proposes imported-food safety rules [Wall Street Journal]
The
Food and Drug Administration has proposed long-delayed rules to ensure the
cleanliness and safety of imported foods like pomegranates and papayas, tahini
paste and tuna, which have caused multistate disease outbreaks. The proposed
rules, issued Friday by the FDA, were held up for about 18 months at the White
House Office of Management and Budget. These standards, covering imported food
and intended to enforce the Food Safety and Modernization Act, signed by
President Barack Obama in January 2011, would require importers to comply with
the same food-purity standards imposed on U.S. farms and food-processing
plants….Under the new standards, importers must know whether supplying farms or
processors are taking steps to cut or eliminate risks. They also will require
importers to work with third-party auditors who will check that these steps are
being followed.
Frogs
in high mountains are contaminated with farm chemicals, study says [NBC News]
What
gets sprayed on the farm doesn't stay on the farm, suggests a new study that
finds frogs living in mountains far away from agricultural fields are
contaminated with a range of pesticides, particularly fungicides, used to
protect crops from bugs, weeds and molds. "These fungicides have not been
reported in the amphibians to date," study leader Kelly Smalling, a
research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told NBC News. She and
colleagues found the contaminated Pacific chorus frogs in California's Sierra
Nevada, downwind from the Central Valley, one of the most productive
agricultural regions in the United States.
Ag
water clearinghouse approves first transfer requests [Imperial Valley Press]
The
Imperial Irrigation District’s Agricultural Water Clearinghouse reviewed and
approved the first set of water transfer requests Thursday. Twenty-seven
requests for additional water have been submitted and approved. Nearly 13,880
acre-feet of water will irrigate 36,397.4 acres. The Agricultural Water
Clearinghouse is one of several components of the district’s initiative to use
water more efficiently and pay back its hefty water overrun.…Farmers who don’t
plan to use their allocation of water can return the unneeded portion to the
Agricultural Water Clearinghouse, where it will be made available to farmers
who need more than their allocation of water. The goal, officials say, is to
facilitate the transfer of water from crops that require less water to those
that require more.
Desert
congressman calls for federal review of Cadiz project [Los Angeles Times]
A
Republican congressman who represents the northern Mojave Desert has asked the
federal government to launch a full-fledged environmental review of Cadiz
Inc.’s proposed groundwater pumping project. The request by U.S. Rep. Paul Cook
(R-Yucca Valley) joins a similar one made last year by Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.), making a rare show of bipartisan unity on a publics lands
issue.…The project, Cook wrote, “is likely to impact San Bernardino County’s
water resources, harming ranchers, rural communities, East Mojave
landowners" and a company that mines salts from a dry lake bed near
proposed wells.
Florida
congressman’s bill would do away with U.S. raisin reserve [Washington Post]
A
Florida congressman has introduced a bill that would eliminate one of the U.S.
government’s most unusual institutions: the Raisin Administrative Committee,
keepers of the national raisin reserve. The raisin reserve is a program
established by the Truman administration which gives the Agriculture Department
a heavy-handed power to meddle in the supply and demand for raisins….A decade
ago, California farmer Marvin Horne defied the reserve, refusing to hand over
his raisins to the government. The Agriculture Department took him to court,
and this year the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court.…On Thursday, Rep. Trey
Radel (R) introduced a bill that would eliminate the reserve’s legal
underpinnings. It would end the 1949 rule, Marketing Order 989, that created
the Raisin Administrative Committee and the reserve.
The
FDA doesn't want chickens to explore the great outdoors [NPR]
Organic
egg farmers are divided in their reaction to a new FDA that's intended to
reduce the risk of salmonella infection among free-roaming chickens. They even
disagree about what the document, called "Guidance for Industry,"
actually requires. On the face of it, the document seems to demand that egg
producers keep their chickens strictly separate from any wildlife. That's
because show that wildlife and their droppings often carry salmonella bacteria.
For that reason, the FDA issued rules back in 2009 ordering farms to keep all
mice, rats and wild birds out of chicken houses. The rules now apply to all
farms with more than 3,000 laying hens. That puts organic producers in a bind
because the rules for organic production require egg-laying chickens to have
"access to the outdoors" whenever the weather allows it. Inevitably,
those chickens will encounter wild birds or mice.
Ag
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