USDA

After Vermont's enactment of the first-in-the-nation labeling law for genetically engineered foods in 2014, state legislatures are comparatively quiet on the issue this year. Only four items were enacted during sessions that ended this spring and two of them were resolutions, from Idaho and North Dakota, that ask Congress to ensure there is a uniform national standard for labeling, says the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The USDA plan to tighten eligibility rules for crop subsidies is unduly restrictive, said two lawmakers from the South. The proposed rule would apply to general partnerships and joint ventures that are not owned by a farm family, about 3 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the country. Congress exempted family farmers when it instructed the USDA, in the 2014 farm law, to devise a stricter definition of who is a farm manager.

The government said it will not approve release of a vaccine against the worst U.S. epidemic of avian influenza in poultry because none of the drugs now available works well enough. "Currently, there is lack of a well matched, effective vaccine for HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] from the public and private sectors. The vaccine currently available offers just 60 percent effectiveness in chickens, leaving 4 in 10 birds unprotected," said the USDA.

Beef prices are at record-high levels in the grocery store and will keep climbing, the government forecasts in its new Food Price Outlook. The USDA now estimates beef prices will rise by 6 percent this year, up by one-half point from the previous forecast. Beef prices soared by 12.1 percent throughout 2014, driven by high demand and an historically low number of cattle in the country. Lower feed prices allow producers to fatten cattle to higher weights, which delays marketing, and to rebuild their breeding herds rather than send animals to slaughter now, so supplies remain tight.

The avian influenza epidemic that erupted six months ago is the worst ever to hit the U.S. poultry industry. The USDA's running tally climbed to 181 confirmed poultry cases with 41 milllion fowl, mostly chickens and turkeys, lost to disease or euthanized to prevent its spread. Harvest Public Media says the epidemic is bigger still, because of the way the USDA keeps its totals - the running tally counts "only those birds that are involved in food production. Left out are wild birds, which officials blame for the start and the spread of the outbreak."

The Obama administration released a five-year "national action plan" to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In a blog, the secretaries of Health, Agriculture and Defense say it is "a whole-of-government approach" built around slowing the spread of resistant bacteria; better surveillance to detect resistant bacteria; development of rapid tests to guide treatment of infections; more research into new antibiotics and alternative treatments; and expanded international health work.

Security rules against the spread of avian influenza are being applied unevenly or not followed at several farms in Iowa, the state hit hardest by the avian influenza epidemic, "potentially increasing the risks that the disease could spread further," says Reuters. It reports that at half of six poultry farms that a reporter visited, operations did not comply with USDA or state protocols to restrict access to farms, to provide protective gear to workers, and to clean the wheels of vehicles leaving the farm.

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved by voice vote a bill that obliges the USDA to minimize any disruption in federal inspection of grain for export, a vital step before U.S. grain can be loaded on cargo vessels. The legislation is a response to last summer's labor dispute that led to a month-long lapse in inspection at Vancouver, Washington. The House Agriculture Committee included similar language a month ago in its bill to reauthorize the Grain Standards Act.

After a landslide 38-6 vote in committee, Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway said the House might vote in early June on legislation to repeal mandatory country-of-origin labels (COOL) for beef, pork and chicken. The Agriculture Committee voted for repeal two days after the WTO ruled the labeling system is a barrier to livestock imports. COOL has been mandatory for U.S. meat since 2008.

Seventeen lawmakers signed as co-sponsors to the Pompeo-Butterfield bill in the House to pre-empt state labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, told reporters he's spent a lot of time talking to senators about the legislation, a broader-reaching bill than his 2014 version. "We just have to find the right path forward," he said, which means finding well-positioned sponsors who could help steer the bill through committee approval to a floor vote.