New organic rules announced by USDA tighten restrictions on livestock and poultry producers

Under the rules, organic poultry must have year-round access to the outdoors. Organic livestock also must have year-round outdoor access and be able to move and stretch at all times. There are additional requirements for pigs regarding their ability to root and live in group housing.

Producers have a year to comply with the rules, with poultry operations given four additional years to meet rules covering outdoor space requirement for egg layers and density requirements for meat chickens.

John Brunnquell, president of Indiana-based Egg Innovations, one of the nation's largest free-range and pasture-raised egg operations, said the new rules would help him compete with companies that have an organic label but don't now give their hens daily access to the outdoors and actual ground, rather than a concrete pad.

Organizations representing the egg and chicken meat industry as well as the pork industry and American Farm Bureau either declined to comment or didn't respond to a request to comment on the new rules.