The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking food suppliers – including seafood purveyors – for input on how it can increase the amount of domestically-caught and -grown food used in its public programs.
The USDA’s request for comment stems from U.S. President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America's Workers, signed in January, which requires terms and conditions of federal financial assistance awards and federal procurements maximize the use of goods, products, and materials produced in the U.S.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is exploring ways to shift more of its supply of food for its National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
“The purpose of this request for information is to help FNS gather feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders on how the Buy American provision and guidance are currently implemented, changes FNS should make to current regulations and guidance, and feedback on how FNS can better support local operators as they strive to purchase domestic foods and food products,” USDA said in a Federal Register notice.
School food authorities are now required to purchase, to the maximum extent practicable, domestic commodities or products.
The agency is requesting local operators, state administrators, industry and producers to provide responses at http://www.regulations.gov by 2 November.
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