Hagstrom, J. (2023, November 9). USDA issues new rules on red meat purchases, poultry contracts and seed sales. DTN Progressive Farmer. https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/blogs/ag-policy-blog/blog-post/2023/11/09/usda-issues-new-rules-red-meat-seed

An executive order was announced that required all red meat bought by the USDA must be born, raised, and killed in ths US. The basic idea behnd this order is to make sure the meat is produced in the US as a way to support US producers. On top of this a new rule was placed that requires poultry companies to disclose earnings. Seed companies are also required to be more transparent with farmers durings sales. All these changes are meant to address competition issues however people are concerned about potential cost spikes.

This article was interesting to read as I never considered how much money the USDA themselves spent on meat. Reading that $800 million was spent buying meat in the past year was shocking. It was also surprising that the rules on buying homegrown meat weren’t already in place. It seems obvious that an American agency should be buying from American producers. This article relates to environmental science as it somewhat unintentionally reduced the meat industry’s carbon footprint. Since there is now a requirement to buy American-produced meat greenhouse gas emissions are reduced due to lower travel-related emissions.