Agriculture Decisions

Agriculture Decisions is an official publication by the Secretary of Agriculture consisting of decisions and orders issued in adjudicatory administrative proceedings conducted for the Department under various statutes and regulations. Selected court decisions concerning the Department's regulatory programs are also included. The Department is required to publish its rules and regulations in the Federal Register and, therefore, they are not included in Agriculture Decisions.

Beginning in 1989, Agriculture Decisions is comprised of three Parts, each of which is published every six months. Part One is organized alphabetically by statute and contains all decisions and orders other than those pertaining to the Packers and Stockyards Act and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, which are contained in Parts Two and Three, respectively.

The published decisions and orders may be cited by giving the volume number, page number and year, e.g., 1 Agric. Dec. 472 (1942). It is unnecessary to cite a decision's docket number, e.g., AWA Docket No. 99-0022, and the use of such references generally indicates that the decision has not been published in Agriculture Decisions.

Consent decisions entered subsequent to December 31, 1986, are no longer published in Agriculture Decisions. However, a list of consent decisions is included in the printed edition. Since Volume 62, the full text of consent decisions is posted on the USDA/OALJ website (See url below). Consent decisions are on file in portable document format (pdf) format and may be inspected upon request made to the Hearing Clerk, Office of Administrative Law Judges.

Beginning in Volume 60, each part of Agriculture Decisions has all the parties for that volume, including consent decisions, listed alphabetically in a supplemental List of Decisions Reported. The alphabetical List of Decisions Reported and the subject matter Index (from the beginning of the annual Volume) are included in a separate volume, entitled Part Four.

Volumes 59 (circa 2000) through the current volume of Agriculture Decisions are also available online at http://www.usda.gov/da/oaljdecisions/ along with links to other related websites. Volumes 39 (circa 1980) through Volume 58 (circa 1999) have been scanned and will appear in pdf on the same OALJ website. Beginning on July 1, 2003, current ALJ Decisions will be displayed in pdf format on the OALJ website in chronological order.

A compilation of past volumes on Compact Disk (CD) of Agriculture Decisions will be available for sale at the US Government Printing Office On-line Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/.

Direct all inquiries regarding this publication to: Editor, Agriculture Decisions, Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 1082 South Building, Washington, D.C. 20250-9200, Telephone: (202) 720-6645, Fax (202) 690-0790, and e-mail address of Editor.OALJ@usda.gov.