Language exempting checkoff programs from federal public records law was added to the pending Fiscal Year 2017 Ag Appropriations bill after a coalition of agriculture groups lobbied for the addition. Meatingplace reports the coalition pressed Congress to add the language which states that because funding for checkoff organizations is provided by producers, “the House urges USDA to recognize such boards as not subject to U.S. Code Section 552.” Section 552 pertains to Freedom of Information Act requests. Several agriculture groups penned a letter to a House Agriculture subcommittee stating that including the language in the Appropriations Bill will ensure that producer resources are focused on research and promotion activities. The coalition in favor of the language includes the National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. However, USDA told The Hagstrom Report on Tuesday that the language “wouldn’t work.” That’s because, according to USDA, the agency is bound by laws passed by Congress, including the Freedom of Information Act. The 2017 Ag Appropriations bill still needs final approval from the full House. Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to consider appropriation bills starting next week.

The American Feed Industry Association and National Grain and Feed Association are partnering to finance a project that the groups say will help the industry comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act. The two groups are funding the University of Minnesota’s work to develop guidelines aimed at helping animal feed, feed ingredient and pet food facilities to cost-effectively comply with a core requirement of the Food and Drug Administration’s final rules in the Act. FSMA requires covered animal food facilities to establish and implement an animal food safety system that includes an analysis identifying “known or reasonably foreseeable” hazards to determine if any hazards exist that require risk-based preventive controls. Under the project, the University will develop a generic hazard analysis and provide the analysis to the associations’ foundations, which in turn will share it with AFIA and NGFA-member facilities to use.

A Canadian restaurant chain claims to be the first in North America to serve 100 percent Certified Humane beef. Vancouver Canada-based Earls Restaurants says Certified Humane beef is raised without the use of antibiotics or steroids and contains no added hormones. Effective last week, all 66 Earl’s restaurants across North America now serve the 100-percent Certified Humane beef, according to Meatingplace. The new focus on Certified Humane products forced the company to change procurement practices. The company is requiring that all of its beef must come from not only Certified Humane ranches but also from Certified Humane slaughterhouses. The move also means that Earl’s will source from the United States as Canadian suppliers cannot keep up the with company’s demand for Certified Humane beef products.

The U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers are urging Canada to change the nation’s grain grading system. The two U.S. groups sent a letter last week to Canadian agriculture and trade officials claiming Canada’s grain grading system unfairly minimizes the quality of U.S.-grown wheat. Currently, under the Canada Grains Act, when a U.S. farmer transports his wheat across the border to Canada with the intent of selling at a local elevator, that wheat will automatically be deemed feed-quality without any regard for the actual quality of the grain. The U.S. wheat groups compare the policy barriers to the Country of Origin Labeling Dispute, saying the Canadian grain grading system affords less favorable treatment for imported wheat as compared to domestically-grown wheat, which aligns closely with Canada’s argument that the U.S. COOL program led to a lower price being paid for Canadian livestock.

Agriculture representatives in Taiwan threatened to stage a large-scale protest last week if the country were to lift its ban on imports of pork from hogs given the feed additive ractopamine. The threat was prompted by a statement from a Taiwanese agriculture official who said Taiwan “cannot shut its doors to U.S. pork containing ractopamine forever in the face of globalization,” according to the U.S. based National Pork Producers Council. NPPC has been pressing the Obama administration to urge Taiwan to lift the ban, which the organization says is not based on science. NPPC says ractopamine was determined to be safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is approved for use in pork production in 26 countries, with 75 additional nations allowing the importation of pork from hogs fed ractopamine.