- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 41534
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
USDA in 198 was developing a plan to consolidate the administrative function (e.g., accounting, budgeting, procurement, personnel) of its field service agencies at the state level under one office, to be called the Support Service Bureau. Currently, separate administrative structures provide support to these agencies. USDA has named this effort its "Administrative Convergence Plan", or simply "administrative convergence." The term also has been used to describe any USDA effort to streamline, or combine under one entity, the administrative functions of one or more of its agencies.
Industry:Agriculture
This Act is P.L. 79-404 (July 11, 1946), as amended, establishes, among other things, minimum procedural requirements or models for federal agency rulemaking and certain types of hearings. For instance, the APA establishes procedures for informal rulemaking, which may include notice-and-comment requirements, or formal rulemaking, which includes trial-type hearings. Exemptions from rulemaking requirements are included in the Act. The APA provides standards for judicial review of final agency action. The provisions of the APA apply to USDA rulemaking, unless exempted under the provisions of another statute. For example, hearings conducted by the USDA's National Appeals Division (NAD) are not governed by the APA. The final determination of the NAD is reviewable and enforceable by a U.S. District Court in accordance with the judicial review provisions of the APA.
Industry:Agriculture
Generally, impure, unsafe, or unwholesome; however, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and the Poultry Products Inspection Act contain separate language defining in very specific (and lengthy) terms how the term "adulterated" will be applied to the foods each of these laws regulates. Products that are adulterated under these laws' definitions cannot enter into commerce for human food use.
Industry:Agriculture
Initial payments (ranging from 30 to 50% of the total payment) made to crop producers when they signed up for federal commodity programs. If the total deficiency payment was eventually calculated to be less than the advance deficiency payment, the producer was required to refund the difference. The FAIR Act of 1996 replaces the target price/deficiency payment subsidy mechanism with production flexibility contract payments.
Industry:Agriculture
Price-support loans made early in a crop year to farmers to enable them to hold their crops for later sale, usually within the marketing year. Farmers must repay the recourse loan with interest and reclaim their collateral.
Industry:Agriculture
A 45-member group appointed by the President to provide advice on matters of trade policy and related issues, including trade agreements. The 1974 Trade Act requires the ACTPN's establishment and broad representation of key economic sectors affected by trade. Below ACTPN are seven policy committees, including the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee (APAC). The Agriculture Policy Advisory Committee is made up of farm sector and industry representatives.
Industry:Agriculture
A legal argument a defendant to a legal preceding can raise which provides a protection or defense for the conduct in question. In actions for the costs of cleaning up groundwater contamination state law may provide an affirmative defense for farmers who use pesticides according to label directions and apply fertilizers based on the results of soil tests.
Industry:Agriculture
Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring mycotoxin produced by two types of mold: aspergillus flavus and aspergillus parasiticus. Aspergillus flavus is common and widespread in nature and is most often found when certain grains are grown under stressful conditions such as drought. Favorable conditions for mold growth include high moisture content and high temperature. At least 13 different types of aflatoxin are produced in nature with aflatoxin B1 considered as the most toxic. While the presence of Aspergillus flavus does not always indicate harmful levels of aflatoxin it does mean that the potential for aflatoxin production is present. The Food and Drug Administration has established action levels for aflatoxin present in food or feed to protect human and animal health. The FDA will consider action if aflatoxin levels exceed: 20 ppb for corn and other grains intended for immature animals (including immature poultry) and for dairy animals, or when its destination is not known; 20 ppb for animal feeds, other than corn or cottonseed meal; 100 ppb for corn and other grains intended for breeding beef cattle, breeding swine, or mature poultry; 200 ppb for corn and other grains intended for finishing swine of 100 pounds or greater; 300 ppb for corn and other grains intended for finishing (i.e., feedlot) beef cattle and for cottonseed meal intended for beef cattle, swine or poultry. All corn exported from the United States is required to be tested for aflatoxin. Aflatoxin testing services are available nationwide, upon request and for a fee using several different types of test kits approved by GIPSA.
Industry:Agriculture
Passed by Congress on October 20, 1998, the Act supports sustainable, broad-based agricultural and rural development in the sub-Saharan Africa through social and economic development in a way that strengthens and expands market-led economic growth and reduces poverty.
Industry:Agriculture
A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-sponsored initiative to improve child nutrition and increase agricultural income of rural people throughout Africa by increasing agricultural production, increasing small farmers' access to the market, and expanding agricultural trade and investment.
Industry:Agriculture
