Finally, late last month the official text and miscellaneous other information regarding the first draft of a 942-page House farm bill entitled the “Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024” was released. At press time, the Senate had not released their version of the farm bill but only disseminated some summary details. Nevertheless, let the debate begin!
For those tracking the farm bill, the House and in due course a Senate version will go before various committees and eventually a compromise version will hopefully make it to the President’s desk for his signature. The House version maintains the $1.5 trillion ten-year farm bill baseline, while the Senate draft version appears to go over it by at least $5 billion or more. So, the House approach is budget neutral, and the Senate version is not.
The current farm bill, which was extended once already, expires on September 30, 2024. This latest move to get farm bill versions out of the House and Senate are major first steps though and many are delighted that the process has finally begun. However, the devil will be in the details which are now being ironed out. It is going to be a very difficult process as with the release of the first drafts, the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats are far, far apart in their thinking. But these days that is the standard operating procedure for most legislative proposals on the Hill. The farm bill is reauthorized every five years by Congress and impacts everyone from “farm to fork” including farmers, food processors, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.
House Majority Plans
By the start of the August Congressional recess, House Republicans say they hope to pass all the fiscal 2025 appropriations bills which they publicly disclosed late last month. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R.- La.) said he will move, at press time, the Military Construction-VA bill and then focus on the defense authorization bill, the Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations and Defense measures afterward. The game plan is to move some of the more important legislation before Republicans head to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention in July.
Price Gouging by Grocers
You may recall in a prior commentary of mine that I mentioned that Democrats are calling on President Biden to investigate price gouging by food retailers. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and House member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) authored a joint letter to the President which was signed by dozens of other Democratic lawmakers stating that American’s grocers are making record profits as families struggle with high food prices. The lawmakers are urging the President to create a joint task force from the Federal Trade Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate price manipulation throughout the food supply chain.
But wait. I discovered there is more to the story but from the other side. Grocery prices, for the first time in a year, dropped in April (the latest reporting period by the Department of Labor). The index for food at home decreased by 0.2 percent for the month, while the food index overall was unchanged. In food categories, three of the commodities reporting groups recorded price decreases, and three went up. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs declined 0.7 percent. The other two groups dropped in price for April were fruits and vegetables and nonalcoholic beverage. After some relief in March’s reporting period which showed a 0.9 percent decrease in prices, cereal and bakery products were up 0.6 percent in April, while other food at home, dairy, and related products were up only 0.1 percent.
Also, retailers know that consumers have been pulling back on food expenditures. National and local retailers are addressing this dilemma by rolling back prices and getting lots of positive publicity for their price reduction efforts….just ask Target, Walmart, Aldi, Giant Food, Amazon Fresh, etc.
All this makes me wonder “where is the beef”?
Lab-Grown Meat Products Banned
Talking about beef, two U.S. states and one European country are banning the manufacturing, selling, and distribution of cultivated cell-grown meat and poultry products. You may recall that I have previously mentioned that Italy enacted a ban last year and now Florida and Alabama are joining the ban on cell-grown meat. Concern has been growing as some naysayers say the experimental product lacks in-depth study to further explore its long-term health consequences as well as threats to traditional animal agriculture. Debate continues around restricting production and regulating the labelling of lab-grown meat in three other states too –Arizona, Iowa, and Tennessee. Several other states previously introduced similar legislation to ban the sale of cultivated meat, but the legislation failed.
The Good Food Institute, a non-government organization, said in a statement about the Florida ban, that “this bill sends a terrible message to the investors, scientists, and entrepreneurs that have built America’s global leadership in alternative proteins.” They added that the Florida legislation has always been about helping one industry, “Big Ag,” avoid accountability and competition. Ya think the cattle folks are a bit nervous about cell cultured meat even though the fed regulators approved the product for sale. You betcha! It is sad that there is a possibility that this new technology may not be available to everyone in the U.S. as well as throughout the world. As went the semiconductor industry in the U.S., so may cultivated cell-grown meat. Highly unlikely but I’m just sayin’.
New School Meal Standards
The Department of Agriculture has announced major steps to promote the health of America’s children through school meals. Nutrition standards for school meals will be gradually updated to include less sugar and greater flexibility with menu planning between Fall 2025 and Fall 2027. The Department arrived at these changes after listening closely to public feedback and considering the latest science-based recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee.
Use of Advisory Committees
The FDA and USDA often make recommendations to Congress via the utilization of advisory committees comprised of volunteers from the food industry and the public. Because of the importance of advisory committees to the legislative and rule-making process, FDA has just announced that the agency is taking the lead to review the current advisory committee process and is seeking input on whether there are ways they can better incorporate a variety of diverse perspectives and experiences, as well as consumer and industry viewpoints into advisory committee meetings.
The FDA is holding virtual listening sessions this month to consider how advisory committee policies and practices can be optimized. The agency plans to make new recommendations on the use of advisory committees this fall. Stay tuned.
Retail Food Protection Code
If you care about food safety and safeguarding the health and welfare of your customers, you need to be familiar with the Food and Drug Administration Food Code. The Food Code represents the FDA’s best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety and protection of food offered at retail. The Food Code is adopted by local, state, territorial, and federal governmental jurisdictions for administration by the various departments that are charged with compliance responsibilities for food service, retail food stores, or food vending operations.
The 2022 Food Code is the most recent full edition published by FDA and was officially released on December 28, 2022. For more information, go to https://www.fda.gov/retailfoodprotection.
Grocery Shopping IS A Labor Of Love
The folks at FMI recently released their 50th edition of U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends, which finds shoppers enjoy food shopping as much as ever. The analysis kicking off their 2024 series, U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends series; Finding Value, Online Shopping; and Eating & Cooking, provides a crucial snapshot of consumer behavior and sentiment in the most frequently purchased consumer category amid ongoing concerns about the impact of inflation on the cost of groceries.
You can explore FMI’s three editions at www.FMI.org/GroceryTrends. The interesting information should be useful to your consumer affairs and marketing staff.
Finally – Did Ya Know?
Every 24 hours, 27,000 trees are cut down to make toilet paper. Want to find a way to save the planet? Well, the Honeycomb Company did just that by creating a luxury 3-ply toilet tissue made from bamboo. The firm said the new product feels just like regular quality toilet paper but does not harm trees.
Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world – growing 100 times faster than the average tree, which means thousands of rolls can be produced in the time it takes for a single tree to grow back. Of course, it is biodegradable too. Good going Honeycomb! For more information, go to: concierge@honeycombluxury.com.
Barry Scher is associated with the public policy firm of Policy Solutions LLC and can be reached at Bscher@policy-solutions.net.
