U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is going to re-evaluate the final rule for the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP).
OLPP standards were proposed near the end of Vilsack’s first tenure as secretary of agriculture under the Barack Obama administration, but they were rescinded shortly after Sonny Perdue took over as agriculture secretary in the Donald Trump administration in 2017.
In a statement, Vilsack said: “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 (OLPP) final rule. I have 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. We anticipate sending the proposed rule to OMB within six to nine months from the date of the remand. We look forward to receiving public comments on those topics and, after reviewing the comments, USDA will publish a final rule.”
Vilsack met with the Organic Trade Association (OTA) during a virtual meeting on June 16, vowing to resolve ongoing issues regarding what was seen as USDA’s failure to implement a critical and fully vetted organic animal welfare regulation.
“The issue has been in the courts since 2017 when the Organic Trade Association took legal action to defend organic standards,” OTA said in a statement. “The USDA has already conceded that its economic analysis underpinning the Trump withdrawal of the OLPP rule is flawed.
Animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) applauded Vilsack’s decision to revisit the rules.
“Secretary Vilsack has made public statements on his support for animal welfare, and we’re happy to see him backing those statements up with concrete actions. We look forward to working with the USDA to ensure that the proposed rule includes significant improvements for animal welfare,” stated Kitty Block, president and CEO of HSUS.
