The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a proposed rule to suspend the federal marketing order regulating the handling of dried prunes grown in California.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is proposing to revise the U.S. Standards for Grades of Pecans in the Shell and the U.S. Standards for Grades of Shelled Pecans to reflect current industry descriptions and practices.

The proposed changes would replace the current grades with U.S. Extra Fancy, U.S. Fancy, U.S. Choice, and U.S. Standard grades.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today a proposed rule to amend the federal marketing order for pears grown in Oregon and Washington. The amendment would reduce the percent of votes needed to approve changes to the handling regulations from 80 percent to 75 percent. The Fresh Pear Committee recommended the changes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced plans to purchase Canned Plums for distribution to various food nutrition assistance programs. Purchases will be made under the authority of Section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it will conduct a referendum, Oct. 30-Nov. 20, 2023, on proposed amendments to the federal marketing order for California almonds. Proposed changes were submitted by the Almond Board of California, which locally administers the federal marketing order.

Proposed Amendments:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will continue the Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program in its present form in order to continue reporting vital market information for farmers and ranchers while gathering additional information on the effectiveness of the pilot.