Under the direction of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, USDA will reconsider the prior administration’s actions on the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices final rule. The regulations for organic livestock and production standards were released in the final days of the Vilsack's previous time at USDA; but one of the first actions under previous Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was to rescind the Obama-era rule and reintroduce its own version.
“We intend to reconsider the prior Administration’s interpretation that the Organic Foods Production Act does not authorize USDA to regulate the practices that were the subject of the 2017 Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices final rule,” says Vilsack.
Speaking live June 16 at the virtual meeting to more than 250 members of the Organic Trade Association, Vilsack laid out a forward-looking agenda for the organic sector. Vilsack told members of the Organic Trade Association at the annual meeting that he appreciates the importance of the organic animal welfare issue.
“We understand, appreciate the concern of getting this done, getting it done right, getting it done in a way that preserves the brand…I am committed, and I committed our team to an accelerated approval process.”
He says he’s directed the National Organic Program to begin a rulemaking to address this statutory interpretation and to include a proposal to disallow the use of porches as outdoor space in organic production over time and on other topics that were the subject of the OLPP final rule.
The Organic Trade Association says it welcomes Vilsack’s acknowledgment that animal welfare belongs in organic, and birds belong outside.