In our July 27, 2018 blog , we explained what bioengineered (BE) food is and informed you about the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) new proposed rule for BE foods. The new rule is a result of the 2016 amendment to the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, which would require food manufacturers and other entities that label foods for retail sale to disclose information about BE food and BE food ingredient content. The amended Act directs the Secretary to establish the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) for disclosing any BE food and any food that may be bioengineered. This proposed rule is intended to provide a mandatory uniform national standard for disclosure of information to consumers about the BE status of foods. The standardized disclosure of information will facilitate food purchasing for consumers by eliminating the current uncertainty when purchasing food; effectively improving overall consumer confidence, without harming food manufacturing; and providing farms and production companies a logical, consistent standard for future labeling and packaging. Continue Reading
New Executive Order…Will Small Businesses Benefit?
On January 30th, the Office of the Press Secretary released the Executive Order (EO) on reducing federal regulations and controlling regulatory costs. This latest EO requires that all federal agencies “cut two existing regulations for every new regulation they implement”. According to President Trump, this EO is meant to help small businesses by easing “the opening and expansion of small businesses” and the “incremental costs for the new regulations in 2017 will be zero dollars”. The EO requires “for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination, and that the cost of planned regulations be prudently managed and controlled through a budgeting process.” There will also be “certain categories of regulations that will be exempt from this new policy, including those dealing with the military and national security”.