Regulatory Considerations
Although important for any business, value-added agricultural businesses need to be especially attentive to industry regulations. Because value-added businesses are often involved in producing food products, attention to regulations is critical, especially for perishable food products.
International Approaches to the Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods discusses international approaches to GM labeling to shed some light on why the approaches vary so much across nations.
For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.
Food Regulations
- Legal Structure Rules and Regulations for Direct Marketing Enterprises – Direct Marketing and Tourism Handbook, University of Arizona – Nearly all marketing activities are impacted by federal, state, county and city ordinances, rules and regulations.
- Food and Agriculture Import Regulations and Standards Report - USDA Foreign Agriculture Service - Outlines labeling requirements, food additive regulations, pesticide regulations, copyright/trademark laws, as well as import procedures.
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - This division of the USDA is responsible for protecting and promoting U.S. agriculture health.
- USDA Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration - This USDA division is responsible for helping American agriculture market livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds, and related agricultural products, and promoting fair and competitive trading practices.
- United States Food Law Update – The National Agricultural Law Center - The one constancy about food law in the United States is change, especially in a rapidly-changing food industry. Innovations in food technology, shifts in popular culture and tastes, concerns of safety and nutrition, pressures from international markets, all contribute to the changing landscape of food law.
- European Union Food Law Update – The National Agricultural Law Center - The purpose of this update is to present the main events that have taken place each six months in the food law sector in the European Union.
Environmental Regulations
- Governmental Oversight of Animal Feeding Operations - The National Agricultural Law Center - Changes in animal production in the United States at animal feeding operations (AFOs) have been accompanied by concerns about those operations' waste byproducts and production practices.
- Federal Environmental Statutes – Lawyers.com -- Environmental protection statutes are implemented through extensive administrative regulations at the federal level, the state level, or at both levels of government.
- State Environmental Statutes – Lawyers.com -- Many states have enacted environmental statutes that are different from the provisions of Federal statues.
- Environmental Permitting – Lawyers.com -- Environmental permitting programs regulate activities deemed to have potentially harmful effects on the physical environment in which we live.
- Environmental Cleanup – Lawyers.com -- Some environmental statutes promote the cleanup of past abuses of the environment.
Other Regulations
- OSHA Safety Standards – Lawyers.com -- In general, there are hundreds of OSHA safety standards.
