USDA Revokes Grass Fed Label Standard

Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Speaks Out Against Decision

Washington, DC, January 12, 2016 – Today in the Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) rescinds the labeling standard for grass fed meat that was developed over the course of four years and finalized, with the support of national farm and consumer organizations including NSAC, in 2006.

“Meat labeling just became even more confusing for farmers and consumers,” said Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “USDA is revoking a label standard that had widespread farm and consumer support. Actions such as this take us into a Wild West situation, where anything goes and both farmers and consumers lose.”

In the Federal Register notice, AMS states that having a strong, clear, consumer-friendly labeling standard “does not facilitate the marketing of agricultural products in a manner that is useful to stakeholders or consumers” because a different USDA agency, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), must approve meat labels and “there is no guarantee that an USDA-verified production/marketing claim will be approved by FSIS.”

“The rationale that a strong USDA label standard for grass fed beef is not useful because it might not be recognized by a partner agency is outrageous,” said Hoefner. “It is both sad and true that these two USDA agencies often do not coordinate, and worse yet that in some cases FSIS has looked the other way, allowing particularly unscrupulous meat companies to abuse the USDA standard,” Hoefner said. “But the common sense solution is not to revoke the standard, but instead to tackle siloing and lack of interagency communication head-on.”

The Federal Register notice gives producers using the grass fed label 30 days to either convert the newly revoked USDA grass fed label claim into their own private grass-fed standard, or to develop a new grass fed standard of their own.

“Rather than bringing consistency and common sense to our food marketing system, USDA seems to be throwing in the towel,” said Hoefner. “This is terrible public policy that will create a multitude of non-uniform labels, which will open the door to more confusion and subterfuge in the marketplace. It is an affront to consumers, who have the right to know how their food is raised, and to the farmers whose innovation and hard work created the trusted grass fed label standard. NSAC and our member organizations believe this reversal is a detriment to a fair and transparent food system and we urge the USDA to come up with an alternative solution quickly.”

The grass fed label claim standard now being revoked was originally published in the Federal Register on May 12, 2006, the result of several years of meetings between farmers and farm and consumer organizations sponsored by AMS and facilitated by NSAC, as well as by a formal public notice and comment process. The standard stated among other things that grass, forbs, and forage needed to be 99 percent or more of the energy source for the lifetime of a ruminant species after weaning in order to qualify as grass fed. Prior to the setting of that standard, grain fed animals were often sold as grass fed, with USDA’s approval.

Mississippi goat & sheep auction moving to new home

Y&R Livestock, which holds a goat and sheep sale on every third Saturday of the month in Ripley, Miss., will hold a grand opening for its new sale barn this Saturday, January 16. This long-running sale has been housed at the old cattle auction building just off Highway 15 north of downtown Ripley. The new location  is east of Ripley off Highway 4. The address, which can be found via GPS, is 8451 County Road 600, Ripley MS. The auction is operated by Wendell Yates and Mike Robbins. The sale begins at 1 p.m. Saturday but goats and sheep can be unloaded beginning Friday evening. The auction markets breeding stock as well as slaughter animals for buyers and sellers. For more information, contact Wendell at 662-720-6006 or Mike at 662-891-6554.

Ky. goat producers can apply for promotional grants

For goat producers living in Kentucky, here’s an opportunity to receive financial aid for promoting your ranch and products. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is now taking applications for promotional grants through it’s “Kentucky Proud” program.

About the grant. This grant reimburses up to half of eligible expenses for advertising, marketing and reaching consumers at the point of purchase to promote Kentucky Proud products with direct Kentucky farm impact. For more information and to download a grant application, click here.

What is direct Kentucky farm impact? The dollar value of agricultural products bought, sold, grown, raised, manufactured or processed with sources clearly linked to Kentucky farms.

What is Kentucky Proud? It is a brand, a statewide network of consumers supporting

Kentucky farms and the chief marketing program of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA).

Kentucky Proud Membership. You must be a member of Kentucky Proud to be considered for a grant. Apply for membership at www.kyproud.com.

Farmer-owned co-op offers ag scholarships

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 6, 2016  — The CHS Foundation, the major giving entity of CHS Inc. (NASDAQ: CHSCP), North America's leading farmer owned cooperative, invites new and existing college students with agriculture or energy-related interests to apply for scholarships. 

The CHS Foundation will award more than 300 scholarships in 2016. One hundred $1,000 scholarships will be made to high school students who choose to pursue agricultural-related degrees or STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, math) fields of study with an interest in agriculture or energy industry careers. 

"CHS and the CHS Foundation are dedicated to developing future leaders," says William Nelson, president, CHS Foundation and vice president, CHS Corporate Citizenship. "We are proud to invest in educating young people to ensure they gain experience and build the skills necessary for long-lasting careers in the agriculture and energy industries." 

High school scholarship applications must be submitted by April 1, 2016. An independent, external committee will select scholarship recipients based on essays, transcripts and reference letters. For additional eligibility information and to apply, visit http://www.chsinc.com/stewardship/scholarships. 

More than 200 additional scholarships will help fund expenses for existing agriculture college students currently pursuing agriculture-related degrees at two- and four-year colleges. These scholarships are directly administered by more than 30 partnering universities throughout the U.S. and application deadlines vary by by school. For more information and a list of partnering universities, visit http://www.chsinc.com/stewardship/scholarships. 

The CHS Foundation is the major giving entity of CHS Inc., the nation's leading farmer-owned cooperative and a global energy, grains and foods company. As a part of the CHS stewardship focus, the CHS Foundation supports education and leadership programs that invest in the future of agriculture, cooperative business and rural America.

CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS, a Fortune 100 company, supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain marketing services, animal feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.

Animal rights extremists may be targeting your farm

ANIMAL AG WATCH BY HANNAH THOMPSON
Hannah Thompson is the communications director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

(This blog post is from Oct. 20)

Last week, I attended a lunch event in DC where Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of Humane Society of the U.S., was the headline speaker. Am I some kind of glutton for punishment? I may be, but it is valuable to hear how the other side of the issues we work on presents itself.

Of all that was said during Pacelle’s presentation, perhaps what was most remarkable was what was missing. One usual top vocabulary term from animal rights extremists did not make one appearance in Pacelle’s 30-minute presentation – “factory farm.”

The “factory farm” terminology is a huge source of frustration for animal agriculture. What the term lacks in a technical definition it more than makes up for in negative connotations. Animal rights and environmental extremist groups have done their best to make “factory farm” the commonly accepted term for any type of large livestock or poultry operation, and advocates for animal agriculture have done our best to mitigate its reach.

Could we have some unlikely allies in that attempt?

A few speakers at the Animal Rights National Conference, which I touched on in a previous post, seem to be saying yes. Speakers at the conference commented on how the term might be distracting from the animal rights movement’s end goal: ending animal agriculture in all shapes and sizes. A few relevant remarks from conference speakers:

• “When we show people how bad and egregious factory farming is, most people will say, ‘Well, I should go to a different farm.’ We need to focus on more on how all farming is bad, not just factory farming.” 
• “This isn’t a fight against factory farming. It’s about a new way of life.” 
• “The term factory farm had its time. We have inadvertently created the alternative animal agriculture industry. All animal agriculture is bad.”

I won’t go so far as to say that the “factory farm” term is being retired, but there is an apparent trend here, and that is a move to focus efforts on all segments of animal agriculture, despite the size. That shift is clear in PETA’s recent targeting of Whole Foodswith an undercover video campaign and lawsuit.

Small, local, organic, alternative meat and poultry producers beware…your operations may be moving closer to the center of the animal rights movement’s target.

Forget Myth: Poinsettias are Not Poisonous to Goats, Pets or Humans

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Go ahead and enjoy poinsettias this winter and forget about the myth of them being poisonous according to Patrick Byers, a horticulture specialist with University of Missouri Extension.

While poinsettias are not good for you and have a horribly bitter taste, the poinsettia is not poisonous to goats, pets or humans, according to Byers. "Most pets or children, if they ever tried a leaf, would spit it out and go no further," he said.

If a new puppy got overzealous and ate most of the leaves on a plant, it would probably get a stomach ache and throw it all back up, according to Byers, but the plant is not deadly.
Research conducted by Ohio State University found ingesting large amounts of any part of the plant to be non-toxic.

The American Medical Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants states that ingestion of the poinsettia plant may produce vomiting but no toxic effects.

POISINDEX (the resource used by U.S. poison control centers) says that a 50 pound child would have to eat more than 500 poinsettia leaves to exceed the experimental doses.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that out of 22,793 reported cases of eating poinsettia leaves in 1995, no significant toxicity was found.

In case you are interested, here is a list of some plants that are generally considered to be hazardous to your pet's health: aloe, amaryllis, asparagus fern, azalea, caladium, calla lily, castor bean, clematis, elephant ears, English ivy, foxglove, holly, hyacinth, iris, daffodils, onion, lilies, philodendron, rhododendron, schefflera, tulip, yew, yucca.

China genetically customizing goats, other animals

China’s western Shaanxi Province is known for rugged windswept terrain and its coal and wool, but not necessarily its science. Yet at the Shaanxi Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Shaanbei Cashmere Goats, scientists have just created a new kind of goat, with bigger muscles and longer hair than normal. The goats were made not by breeding but by directly manipulating animal DNA—a sign of how rapidly China has embraced a global gene-changing revolution.

Geneticist Lei Qu wants to increase goatherd incomes by boosting how much meat and wool each animal produces. For years research projects at his lab in Yulin, a former garrison town along the Great Wall, stumbled along, Qu’s colleagues say. “The results were not so obvious, although we had worked so many years,” his research assistant, Haijing Zhu, wrote in an e-mail.

That changed when the researchers adopted the new gene-customizing technology called CRISPR–Cas9, a technique developed in the U.S. about three years ago. CRISPR uses enzymes to precisely locate and snip out segments of DNA, much like a word-processor finding and deleting a given phrase — a process known as “gene-editing.” Although it is not the first tool scientists have used to tweak DNA, it is by far more precise and cheaper than past technologies. The apparent ease of this powerful method now raises both tantalizing possibilities and pressing ethical questions.

Once the goat team began to deploy CRISPR, their progress was rapid. In September Qu and 25 other collaborating scientists in China published the details of their research in Nature’s Scientific Reports. In early-stage goat embryos they had successfully deleted two genes that suppressed both hair and muscle growth. The result was 10 goat kids exhibiting both larger muscles and longer fur—designer livestock—that, so far, show no other abnormalities. “We believed gene-modified livestock will be commercialized after we demonstrate [that it] is safe,” predicts Qu, who envisions this work as a simple way to boost the sale of goat meat and cashmere sweaters from Shaanxi. [Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.]

The research is just one of a recent flurry of papers by Chinese scientists that describe CRISPR-modified goats, sheep, pigs, monkeys and dogs, among other mammals. In October, for instance, researchers from the country discussed their work to create unusually muscled beagles in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. Such research has been supported via grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Science and Technology as well as provincial governments. To read more, click here.

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