USDA to set requirements for agencies to purchase bio-based products

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told the American Farm Bureau Federation here Sunday that USDA will issue rules this week requiring all federal agencies to establish preferential purchasing programs for bio-based products.

Bio-based items are commercial or industrial goods that are composed at least in part of biological products or renewable agricultural or forestry materials.

In one of her last speeches before leaving office, Veneman said the rule will be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.

The 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act authorized the bio-based procurement program. Veneman noted that it is the last major section of the farm bill to be implemented. The rule, she said, will establish the process by which the Agriculture Department will designate items for preferred procurement. These will include bio-based greases, hydraulic fluids, polymers, industrial solvents and fertilizers.

Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chaired the panel when the farm bill was written and who encouraged the bio-based procurement program, told Agriculture Secretary-designate Mike Johanns at his confirmation hearing last week that he was still waiting for the program to be implemented.

"The Federal Bio-Based Preferred Procurement Program creates a preference across the entire federal government to purchase bio-based products, when practical, based on price, availability and performance," Veneman told the Farm Bureau annual meeting. "This rule promotes energy independence and the use of environmentally sustainable energy from biological sources, while at the same time creating new demand for agricultural commodities and new business investment and job growth in rural America."

After her speech, Veneman said she has known Johanns, the governor of Nebraska, for a long time and that the transition in leadership is "congenial and easy." After a confirmation hearing last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved Johanns' nomination. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination during the week of Jan. 20.