Tom Vilsack

Obama administration officials announced a final version of the FDA's veterinary-feed directive at a Forum on Antibiotics Stewardship at the White House today. The rule, an update of a 2000 directive, was proposed in December 2013 as the agency began steps to require veterinary approval for use of medically important antibiotics to treat or prevent disease in food animals. The FDA is halfway through a voluntary phase-out of the use of medically important antimicrobials as growth promotants in livestock.

A new rule proposed by the USDA would limit joint ventures and general partnerships to a maximum of three people who can collect crop subsidies by declaring they are farm managers. The proposal is open for public comment until May 26. The 2014 farm law empowered the USDA to write stricter rules about who is "actively engaged" in farming, but it exempted family farms, which constitute 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the country.

During a 45-minute telephone call, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked his Chinese counterpart to scale back the ban on imports of U.S. poultry imposed because of avian influenza in the western half of the country. Agriculture Minister Han Changfu demurred, saying Chinese law required a full-country ban, Vilsack told the North American Agricultural Journalists. "They will have a team come to the United States in the summer" to see firsthand U.S. biosecurity controls designed to spot outbreaks and prevent them from spreading.

The error rates for the school lunch and school breakfast programs "remain unacceptably high," said the USDA, although there are signs of improvement, such as a lower overall error rate. In a report, the department said schools had an error rate of 15.8 percent for the $11.8-billion lunch program and 23.1 percent for the $3.3-billion breakfast program - a total of $2.7 billion for the 2012-13 school year that included over- and under-payments.

The government will allow an additional 30 days for comment on the report by a panel of experts on how to revise the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The report has drawn criticism because it says environmental sustainability should be taken into account in recommending a healthy diet. Farm groups, especially from the meat industry, say the report is wrong to say people should eat less meat.

Export restrictions on U.S. poultry, imposed because of outbreaks of avian influenza, are not likely to have a significant impact on the beef sector, said USDA chief economist Robert Johannson. "At this point, it doesn't appear to be an issue." A couple of dozen countries have imposed full or partial bans on U.S. poultry. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told senators the bans affect roughly 15 percent of poultry exports and that the USDA was to keep shipments moving.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Health and Agriculture committees asked for 30 additional days for public comments on a report that will serve as the foundation for a new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. "This advisory committee report included recommendations that are notably different from previous guidelines, which will require additional time to develop thoughtful feedback," said the letter to Health Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The Obama administration announced eight steps to boost exports by rural businesses, including "reverse trade missions" that bring foreign business officials into the United States as well as an effort to double the number of rural businesses that take part in traditional trade missions overseas. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the announcement was the result of workshops held over the past year in rural America.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he would provide "flexibility" if needed to assure orderly handling of two important farm program deadlines. Growers have until Friday to tell the USDA whether they want to update two factors for calculating crop subsidies - average yields and acreage bases. And they have until March 31 to select either the insurance-like Agricultural Risk Coverage subsidy or the traditionally designed Price Loss Coverage subsidy.

The USDA's annual Outlook Forum traditionally generates headlines with its projections of U.S. crop production seven months before harvest, a challenging exercise considering the many factors that could intervene. A late-winter surge in commodity prices could sway planting decisions, a cold and rainy spring can force last-minute changes among crops, and a summer drought can destroy crop prospects.