INTRODUCTION:  The purpose of this Agriculture Acquisition Regulation (AGAR) Advisory is to 1) standardize FedBizOpps synopsis language for USDA contract requirements that contain biobased products and 2) improve a business’ ability to identify USDA contract requirements that contain biobased product requirements through a FedBizOpps synopsis.

Section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA), 7 U.S.C. 8102, charges the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the development and implementation of a comprehensive affirmative procurement program (APP) to increase the procurement and use of biobased products. USDA’s APP is available at http://www.usda.gov/procurement/biobased/APP.pdf.

Biobased products are commercial or industrial products that are composed in whole, or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials or forestry materials. Over 150 categories (Items) of biobased products have been identified for designation by the Secretary. A detailed description of each Item category can be found at http://www.biobased.oce.usda.gov/public/categories.cfm.

The biobased procurement program to increase the procurement and use of biobased products is an important issue to USDA leadership. The importance and impact of the program to USDA’s customers is considerable. Its success will stimulate new markets and help create new investment, job formation, and income generation in rural America.

OBJECTIVE:

Strategies to meet the objective include:

1. Promote biobased product awareness and requirements to USDA staff at all levels and to other Federal users;

2. Ensure that potential vendors are able to easily identify those USDA solicitations that contain biobased product requirements; and

3. Ensure designated biobased products receive a preference for inclusion as requirements in appropriate USDA contracts
    over the simplified acquisition threshold.

Program officials are responsible for identifying the contract needs of their respective organizations. Where possible, they should consider including biobased products to replace non-biobased products for a specific contract requirement. When developing the statement of work (SOW) for a contract requirement that contains biobased products, program personnel should conduct a market research to determine availability and cost of the identified biobased products. Once the SOW has been completed, it shall be forwarded to their cognizant contracting office serving their organization.

The contracting officer (CO) shall ensure, when biobased products have been included in a contract requirement, that the following two sentences are incorporated into the Synopsis description submitted to the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps):

"This procurement requires the use of biobased products to the extent that such products are reasonably available, meet agency or relevant industry performance standards, and are reasonably priced. Where available, these products should first be acquired from among qualified products that fall under the umbrella of items designated through the Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program (FB4P)".

The provisions of this Advisory are effective immediately.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this advisory, please contact Mike Green by phone at (202) 720-7217, fax at (202) 720-8972, or by e-mail at Mike.Green@usda.gov