- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 41534
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
An animal or plant that is directly or indirectly detrimental to human interests, causing harm or reducing the quality and value of a harvestable crop or other resource. Weeds, termites, rats, and mildew are examples of pests.
Industry:Agriculture
P.L. 104-193 (September 22, 1996) was labeled as a major "welfare reform" initiative. In addition to provisions making major changes to federal cash welfare, Medicaid, work, and child care development programs, this law revised the food stamp program and several commodity distribution programs (notably the emergency food assistance program and the soup kitchen food bank program).
Industry:Agriculture
An entity defined by USDA as being eligible to receive federal farm program benefits, subject to annual payment limitation constraints. A "person" may be an individual farmer, an individual member of a joint operation, a corporation, a joint stock company, an association, a limited partnership, a trust, an estate, or a charitable organization. A husband and wife are considered one person for payment limitation purposes. A joint operation is not a person; neither is a cooperative association of producers that markets commodities for producers.
Industry:Agriculture
The acreage on which a farm program participant is permitted to grow a program crop after satisfying acreage reduction requirements. For example, when a 10% acreage reduction program is in effect for wheat, a farmer with a 100-acre wheat base may grow wheat on 90 acres, the permitted acres. Limits on production are eliminated by the FAIR Act of 1996 through the year 2002.
Industry:Agriculture
Pesticides that do not readily break down in the environment. Becoming long-lived components of the ecosystem, these chemicals may have enduring effects at low concentrations or may bioaccumulate, posing hazards to higher predators.
Industry:Agriculture
Legislation that would be in force in the absence of all temporary or short-term laws (e.g., farm bills). The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, the Agricultural Act of 1949, and the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act of 1948 serve as the basic laws authorizing the major commodity programs. Technically, each new farm bill (including the FAIR Act of 1996) amends the permanent law for a specified period. The FAIR Act of 1996 also repealed some provisions of permanent law and suspended other provisions through 2002. Many programs and activities of USDA are authorized by permanent laws that are periodically amended.
Industry:Agriculture
Trees, or perennial grasses, legumes, or shrubs with an expected life span of at least 5 years. Permanent cover is required on cropland entered into the Conservation Reserve Program.
Industry:Agriculture
Farm goods that prior to processing cannot be stored for a substantial period of time without excessive loss through deterioration or spoilage. Examples of perishable commodities are fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry. Most of the commodities purchased by the Agricultural Marketing Service under Section 32 authority are perishable items.
Industry:Agriculture
P.L. 71-325 (June 10, 1930), as amended, regulates the buying and selling of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables to prevent unfair trading practices and to assure that sellers will be paid promptly. Both produce sellers and buyers must pay fees for a license in order to do business, and these license fees are the source of funding for a trust program that resolves disputes and protects sellers from non-payment when buyers become bankrupt. Amendments to the Act in 1995 (P.L. 104-48) include a 3-year phase out of the annual license fees for retailers and grocery wholesaler-dealers to be replaced by one-time fee.
Industry:Agriculture
A computer-based system used by USDA’s meat and poultry inspection agency, the Food Safety and Inspection Service. The system organizes inspection requirements, schedules inspection activities, and maintains records of findings for meat and poultry processing operations under federal inspection. PBIS has been at issue because consumer advocates and some inspectors have contended that it is not flexible and "second-guesses" inspectors’ more reliable experience and judgment. USDA views it as an objective tool for inspection that enhances rather than undermines inspectors’ roles.
Industry:Agriculture
