Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last week announced further Department of Agriculture restructuring under his plan announced in May. Perdue says the work streamlines bureaucracy, improves efficiency and makes the federal agency more customer friendly. The actions involve innovation, consolidation and the rearrangement of certain offices into more “logical organizational reporting structures,” according to USDA. The most notable change is the moving of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration into one agency, the Agricultural Marketing Service. Other changes include: moving the food standards Codex office from the Food Safety and Inspection Service to the trade mission area, merge the International Food Commodity Procurement program from the Farm Service Agency with the domestic Commodity Food Procurement program, and merging the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion with the Food and Nutrition Service.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.