The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing a rule to establish the free and restricted percentages of tart cherries grown in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin that handlers may purchase from, or handle on behalf of, tart cherry growers during the 2024-25 crop year.

Summary

After consideration of public comments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will be terminating its master scale testing program and closing the master scale depot in Chicago, Ill. This action aligns with AMS’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) mission to streamline official service delivery and return to its core functions and services mandated by the United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA).

To get a patent in the United States, the Patent Act requires patent applicants to include enough written information that a person of ordinary skill in the art could make and use the invention. This description, commonly known as “enablement,” is an essential component of the intellectual property system, which aims to create an incentive to innovate while delivering the benefits of the innovation to the public. With biological materials, a person may need access to the physical biological material the inventor has created in order to make and use it.

A Preissuance Submission (PIS) is a submission of evidence challenging the validity of the claims made about a pending patent application before the patent is granted. When patent examiners evaluate whether an invention claimed in a patent application is new, useful, and non-obvious, they look for “prior art” — any evidence that what is in the claim has already been described.

In most cases, the USPTO publishes pending patent applications 18 months after the initial filing date. There are several tools the public can use to view published pending patent applications and to stay updated as applications move through the examination process.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Grain Inspection Advisory Committee (GIAC) meeting scheduled for Oct. 28-29, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo., is cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date once authority and appropriations are provided.

The GIAC is authorized by the U.S. Grain Standards Act (USGSA) and operates on congressionally appropriated funds. The authority for the GIAC expired on Sept. 30, 2025, and Federal Grain Inspection Service staff who manage the committee are currently furloughed due to a lapse in funding.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has launched Many Hats – A Food Hub Operator’s Toolkit, a central depot of resources to support food hub leaders. The toolkit was developed through a partnership with the University of Vermont and Michigan State University to build upon existing knowledge of food hubs and understand the many roles of food hub operators, from start up, to expansion, to innovation.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting comments on a proposed rule to establish the quantity of each class of spearmint oil produced in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon and parts of Nevada and Utah (Far West) that handlers may purchase from, or handle on behalf of, producers during the 2025-2026 marketing year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Grain Inspection Advisory Committee’s fall meeting will be held Oct. 29-30, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri. Visit the Grain Inspection Advisory Committee webpage for more information about the committee and meeting details.