Breaking News. The Good Kind.
Kathleen Merrigan, organic foods expert, tapped for No. 2 agriculture slot
President Obama has tapped Kathleen Merrigan, an academic and former congressional aide who helped write federal organic food-labeling rules, to be deputy agriculture secretary. The White House announced the pick yesterday, drawing cheers from food-safety advocates, who have pushed for more stringent labeling regs.
“Merrigan will bring an excellent perspective to a number of troublesome labeling issues now before the agency,” Jean Halloran, Consumers Union’s director of food policy initiatives, said in a statement. Among the matters that need to be addressed, she said: loopholes in the current “grass fed” standard, lack of uniformity in meat marketing claims, defining “raised without antibiotics” label claims, and weaknesses in the current definition of “naturally raised.”
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