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BioPreferred labels biobased products

The USDA’s new BioPreferred label will tell people at a glance that a product is biobased and made from renewable resources. Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan says it promotes the sale and use of the products in the commercial market.

“We’ve already designated approximately 5,100 biobased products from cleaning products to building materials for preferred purchasing by federal agencies,” said Merrigan, during a conference call Wednesday with reporters.

The final rule for program qualification is in the Federal Register Thursday. Since release of the proposed rule, the amount of bio-based content in a qualifying product was reduced from 51 percent to 25 percent. Merrigan defended that change by saying that where the BioPreferred program is concerned, her agency is not yet ready to put the period at the end of the sentence.

“It’s not meaningless,” she said, referring to the qualifying amount of biobased content, “you know you have to have a 25 percent threshold in order to achieve this label, which is not insignificant.”

At the opening of the conference call, Merrigan pointed out that before long, she’ll be able to tell if her lip balm is made from a qualifying amount of biobased materials.

“Consumers are looking for this, the Congress has asked us for this,” said Merrigan. “This is something that’s been kicking around for awhile in the 2002 Farm Bill, where the USDA’s BioPreferred program was born.”

The BioPreferred program involves biobased product procurement by federal agencies, and voluntary labeling in the marketing of biobased products.

AUDIO: Kathleen Merrigan (20 min. MP3)

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