USDA Proposes to Move Lists of Regions with Animal Diseases, States Receiving Imported Horses to Web Site

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today published a proposed rule that would move the Agency’s list of regions affected by certain animal diseases from its import regulations to the APHIS website. The proposal would make the same change to the list of states approved to receive horses from countries affected by contagious equine metritis (CEM).
APHIS is proposing these actions to be able to respond more quickly to changes in disease status. Currently, the Agency must go through the full rulemaking process to recognize changes in a region’s animal disease status or the lists of states approved to receive horses from CEM affected countries. Under the proposal, APHIS would continue to base its disease status decisions or State approval on the same technical criteria as the current system, but would make changes to its status lists using a notice-based process, rather than rulemaking. APHIS would add a region or state to its status lists only after completing an evaluation and announcing its availability for public comment through a notice in the Federal Register.
The Agency regulations would provide the Web addresses for the lists, explain APHIS' criteria for adding or removing a region or state to or from the lists, and establish the notice-based process, in place of rulemaking, for amending the lists.
This proposed rule is published in today’s June 1, 2011, Federal Register.
We will consider all comments that we receive on or before August 1, 2011. You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2009-0035 to submit or view comments and to view supporting and related materials available electronically.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send two copies of your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0035, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0035.
Comments are posted on the Regulations.gov website and may also be reviewed at USDA, Room 1141, South Building, 14th St. and Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. To facilitate entry into the comment reading room, please call (202) 690-2817.

APHIS Deregulates Roundup Ready Alfalfa

Westboro farmer Blake Hurst, Missouri Farm Bureau President, welcomed the news the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved the unconditional deregulation of Roundup Ready alfalfa.

“Our organization had serious concerns about the possible inclusion of geographic restrictions and isolation distances as conditions for deregulation,” Hurst said. “Such a decision would have undermined the credibility of the department’s science-based regulatory regime for approving biotech crops.”

Hurst said the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was considering some rather draconian buffer strips between Roundup Ready alfalfa and producers of non-biotech crops.

“The science is clear, and the laws are written so when things are proven safe they should be deregulated,” Hurst said. “We in Farm Bureau are pleased USDA officials adhered to sound science in the regulatory approval process, and that our farmers will be able to use the best technology available.”