California Apple Harvest Begins and No NEPA Analytics for GE Seeds
From the Ag Information Network, this is your Agribusiness Update.
**Harvest of Gala apples has started in California’s Central Valley, with the fruit hitting produce aisles last week.
Because California starts picking apples several weeks before Washington state, the nation’s leading apple producer, providing the first fresh apples of the year is a key selling point.
Unlike the Evergreen State, which keeps its apples in cold storage and sells them long after harvest, Golden State apples are picked, packed and shipped fresh.
**The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced it will no longer conduct a National Environmental Policy Act analysis when approving genetically engineered seeds.
APHIS regulates genetically engineered organisms, and those regulations allow them to grant unregulated status to a GE seed if the plant grown from it would not pose a greater
pest risk than a similar organism.
That means it could be easier to bring new GE seeds to
market.
**The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, is reaching out to farmers, ranchers, and agricultural landowners to gather in-depth information about the conservation practices they use.
Nearly 23,000 operators nationwide will receive the 2025 Conservation Effects Assessment Project survey.
Eligible farmers and landowners may be contacted between November and March 2026 and asked to participate.
