Articles Tagged with ''usda''

The Agricultural Marketing Service needs to strengthen its oversight of checkoff programs to ensure consistent and clear methodologies are employed to help evaluate results, the Government Accountability Office says.

A crew from Jimmy Kimmel Live went to farmers markets in 2014 to ask regular citizens about genetic engineering. Each person was asked, “What is a GMO?”

A recently released USDA audit of Brazil's ability to produce safe beef calls into question the country's "equivalency" status that allows it access to the U.S. market, according to government, industry and food safety advocates. At a minimum the audit shows that Brazil still has some serious regulatory hurdles to clear before the country can resume shipping its renowned grass-fed beef cuts to the U.S.

There’s still confusion surrounding whether or not the Department of Agriculture is working to put together a contingency plan to help out farmers if the U.S. pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but experts say such a plan really wouldn’t help much in a worst-case scenario.

USDA’s regulatory reform officer told Capitol Hill lawmakers Tuesday that the department has identified about 140 regulations as “possible options” for revision or repeal. Although she did not identify them, she said a “significant number” will be published in the fall Unified Regulatory Agenda that should appear any day now, if history is any guide.