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USDA BioPreferred Program
USDA’s BioPreferred® Program
Managed by USDA, BioPreferred was initiated and
reauthorized in the two most recent “Farm Bills,” the
Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 and
the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.
The goal of BioPreferred is to increase the purchase and use
of biobased products through two initiatives: procurement
preference by federal agencies and their contractors and
voluntary certifi cation and labeling for consumer marketing.
Biobased Products De fined
Biobased products are commercial or industrial products
(other than food or feed) that are composed in whole, or in
signi cant part, of biological products, renewable agricultural
materials (including plant, animal and marine materials) or
forestry materials.
The 2008 Farm Bill extended the defi nition of biobased products to include biobased intermediate ingredients or
feedstocks. Biobased products do not include fossil fuels such as coal or petroleum, motor vehicle fuels, heating oil
and electricity produced from biomass (biological material from living or recently living organisms, most commonly
used as a renewal energy source).
Federal Procurement Preference
The 2002 Farm Bill requires the U.S. government and its contractors to buy and use products that are biobased.
BioPreferred designates which types of products must be afforded this procurement preference. As a part of this
process, a minimum biobased content is speci fied for each product category, and information on the technical, health and
environmental characteristics of these products is made available on the BioPreferred website (www.biopreferred.gov).
Products that had a signi ficant market share in 1972 do not qualify for federal procurement preference. For example,
cotton T-shirts are biobased but are considered a mature market product since a signi cant portion of the T-shirt market, as
of 1972, consisted of cotton based products.
Voluntary Certi fication and Labeling
The consumer-focused portion of BioPreferred is designed to empower the consumer to take into account the verifi ed
amount of biobased content in a product and to assure them of the accuracy of biobased content of products that
include the of ficial “USDA Certi fied Biobased Product” label. The USDA certifi ed biobased label is intended to be:
• Easy to understand
• Transparent by way of percent biobased content
• Cost-effective to the end user
• Proprietary and controlled
The USDA Certi fied Biobased Product Eligibility
Products must be biobased to be eligible for certi fication. Products that fit into one of the designated federal
procurement preference categories must meet or exceed the required biobased content minimum for that category. All
other products must be at least 25 percent biobased unless the label applicant applies for and receives an alternative
minimum biobased content. Mature market products, which are excluded from the federal procurement preference
program, will be considered for label certi fication on a case-by-case basis.
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