USDA Amends Tomato Marketing Order

November 17, 2020 USDA AMS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is amending the Florida Tomato Marketing Order to reduce membership of the Florida Tomato Committee from 12 to 10, extend the length of the terms of office from one to two years, and reduce the quorum requirements from eight to six.

USDA Announces Contracts for Round 4 of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program

November 2, 2020 USDA AMS

Following U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s authorization of up to an additional $500 million for the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it has approved contracts for up to the authorized amount to support American producers and communities in need through the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program. To date, more than 110 million boxes have been distributed.

USDA Revises US Standards for Grapefruit and Oranges Revises U.S. Standards for Grapefruit and Oranges

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is revising the U.S. Standards for Grades of Grapefruit (Texas and States other than Florida, California and Arizona) and U.S. Standards for Grades of Oranges (Texas and States other than Florida, California and Arizona) to remove the Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) tables.

USDA Proposes to Terminate 10 U.S. Consumer Standards

October 29, 2020 USDA AMS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is proposing to terminate 10 U.S. consumer standards that are obsolete and impede the effective marketing of specialty crops.

USDA Releases 2019 Annual Pesticide Data Program Summary

October 28, 2020 USDA AMS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today published the 2019 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual Summary. The summary shows that nearly 99 percent of the samples tested had pesticide residues below benchmark levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).