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Watermelon Standards Need Supporting Comments Log-on Today and Support the Updates The National Watermelon Association formed a Grade Standards Committee 13 months ago to work with USDA to modernize the grade standards and update the photo library to both reflect the varieties and business of today. That effort, chaired by Jordan Carter of Cordele, Georgia, has accomplished as much as possible, even with the 2020 shut-down and travel limitations. Now that the country is beginning to reopen, it is time to get the ball rolling again. A Watermelon Proposed Notice was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, March 11 with a 60-day period to submit comments. After the submission period closes, and it is determined that the sum of the comments support the revisions, and there are no further revisions to be made, USDA will develop a Final Notice and send it to the Federal Register. If all goes well, possibly by late summer, the revisions will become effective. Please logon to the Federal Register and support these revisions to the grade standards. There will be more changes coming in the future, and we’ll take care of them one at a time until we have completed the modernization effort. Thank you very much. |
