The latest Headlines in the swine industry from Brownfield Ag News:
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NPPC says food safety bill goes too far
The National Pork
Producers Council says it has serious concerns about the food safety reform legislation approved this week (June 10) by a House subcommittee. The NPPC says among the concerns is the authority for the Food and Drug Administration to "conduct on-farm inspections, to quarantine geographic areas
over food safety problems and to create a ‘farm to fork’ tracing system for food."<br /> <br /> NPPC says the Food Safety and Enhancement Act of 2009 would also allow the FDA to write safety standards for on-farm animal control, manure use and employee hygiene. And if those
guidelines weren’t followed, NPPC the legislation would require food from those farms to be "adulterated."<br /> <br /> NPPC president Don Butler says the legislation would duplicate efforts and give broad authority to the FDA over on-farm issues. Butler says the producing safe
pork is the number one priority of pork producers, but this bill is, in his words "a recipe for disaster for America’s food animal farmers and – ultimately – for America’s consumers."<br /> <br /> The measure goes before the full House Energy and Commerce Committee next
week.<br /> <br />
Wisconsin Assembly still wrestling with budget plan
As of late Friday, the Wisconsin State Assembly caucuses were still working on changes to the budget reconciliation package from the Joint Finance Committee.<br /> <br
/> One of the provisions in the Joint Finance package which drew immediate fire was a plan to increase the filing fees for Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permits for large livestock operations in the state from $250 to $1,200. State law requires a WPDES permit for
livestock operations with 1,000 animals units (750 dairy cows) or more. The Joint Finance plan would also have charged an annual fee of $345 for a farm to maintain the permit plus DNR would have the authority to establish an annual per-animal fee in these operations as well. The two top members of
the Assembly Agriculture Committee, Chair Amy Sue Vruwink and Republican Al Ott quickly expressed their disapproval of the plan and Vruwink introduced legislation to reduce the application fee and get rid of the annual fee. Vruwink says the increases are detrimental to state efforts to build the
dairy industry.<br /> <br /> Wisconsin Farmers Union president Sue Beitlich does not agree and sent a letter to Vruwink asking her to reconsider the change. Beitlich says "The proposed $1,200 initial permit fee and a $345 annual fee is a small sum when compared to the total costs
of permitting all 48 pending CAFOs in the state, Beitlich said. WFU has learned from discussions with the DNR that over $100,000 has already been expended in staff time and costs during the permitting process for the Rosendale Dairy alone. Those costs include the expansion to 4,000 cows; the next
step is to permit for their 8,000-cow facility, which will involve added time and expense that could cost nearly $50,000 according to the DNR officials."<br /> <br /> In another budget issue, the Democratic caucus did make some changes to the proposed tax on windfall profits for oil
companies. A number of fuel cooperatives opposed the Governor’s oil franchise tax charging it would reduce or eliminate patronage refunds to cooperative members. While the group sought to get the fee out of the budget all-together, the compromise reduces the tax rate and caps it as well. Bill
Oemichen with the Cooperative Network says the change will preserve patronage payments and limit the impact on cooperative members.<br /> <br />
What’s the impact
of CAFOs?
A Purdue University study taking an in-depth look at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in 8 Indiana counties with the largest concentration of
CAFOs will be presented during a public broadcast on Thursday, June 18 from 7 to 9 p.m.<br /> <br /> Janet Ayres, an agricultural economist and Purdue Extension land use specialist says that because many communities have an agricultural base, it’s an issue that must be addressed.<br
/> <br /> "The purpose of this is to provide information to enable people to be more knowledgeable about what is going on with Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, as this likely will be the future in terms of animal production in our communities," said Ayres.<br />
<br /> The study looked at CAFOs in Benton, Cass, Huntington, Jasper, Jay, Randolph, Wabash and Wells counties.<br /> <br /> "We conducted hour long interviews with swine and dairy CAFOs in those counties - 50 in all," Ayres said. "We learned that these are very
complex operations."<br /> <br /> In addition to the on-farm visits the Purdue study team also visited courthouses to collect information to determine the fiscal impact these operations have on government budgets. They also checked all environmental violations and spills with the
Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM.) And they looked into what local communities were doing to address CAFO –related issues.<br /> <br /> The meeting will be broadcast at Purdue Extension office or other locations around the state in the following counties: Adams,
Allen, Bartholomew, Decatur, Elkhart, Floyd, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Jasper, LaPorte, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Parke, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Wells and Whitley. For exact locations contact your County Extension office.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br
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Fountain County livestock producer certified by ISDA
Kyle Crowder of Fountain County is the 23rd livestock producer in the state to be certified by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) in the Certified Livestock
Producer Program.<br/ /> <br/ /> "This program recognizes exceptional Indiana livestock producers who have proactively adopted progressive management practices to demonstrate their commitment to the environment, animal well-being and being a good neighbor," said Lt. Governor
Becky Skillman. "In going above and beyond, these producers are leaders in the livestock industry."<br/ /> <br/ /> Lt. Governor Skillman launched the Certified Livestock Producer Program in July 2008.<br/ /> <br/ /> Current list of Certified Livestock
Producers<br/ /> <br/ /> <br/ /> <br/ />
Russia said to have banned pork imports from 2 Iowa plants
Russia reportedly has banned pork imported from two Tyson food plants in Iowa. According to the Des Moines Register, the Russian meat plant oversight group said E. coli bacteria
was found in some meat from the Waterloo and Columbus Junction plants. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson tells the Register that the company has very few details about the Russian plant de-listings of last week and that Tyson is working with USDA and Russian officials. Mickelson said in a statement
that Tyson is "confident about the safety" of its pork products. USDA says Russia has banned pork from nine U.S. states because of H1N1 concerns but had not banned any pork imports from the Iowa plants. <br /> <br />
Chicken Council official calls documentary
‘one-sided and misleading’
One of the people attending this week’s Washington, D.C. premier of the documentary film "Food Inc." was Richard Lobb,
communications director of the National Chicken Council. <br/ /> <br/ /> Lobb has a special interest in the film. He is the only representative of the ag or food industries who agreed to be interviewed for it, and his short clip on what’s good about America’s food system appears near the
start of the movie. But Lobb says, after that, the film becomes very negative and misleading.<br/ /> <br/ /> "I don’t recognize the food system they’re talking about there," Lobb says. "They take a lot of liberties with this. It’s very one-sided."<br/
/> <br/ /> Lobb says the crowd at the movie’s premier showing was dominated by what he calls "activists". He says some interesting theories emerged during the post-movie discussion.<br/ /> <br/ /> "Their attitude is that food is too cheap in this country—that
people ought to pay more for their food—and if they paid more for their food, they’d make different choices and we wouldn’t have such an obesity problem," Lobb explains. "I don’t know, maybe that’s true—but I think most people in this country prefer the supply of economical and wholesome
food that we have."<br/ /> <br/ /> So does Lobb think the movie does damage to the agriculture and food industries?<br/ /> <br/ /> "For some reason we’ve become kind of the punching bag for the intellectuals in this country, and the people who want to fix everything
and tell us how to run our lives better," he says, "and I think this is the latest step."<br/ /> <br/ /> On its web site, the Chicken Council calls the movie, quote—"a documentary about the American food system the way Raiders of the Lost Ark was a documentary about
archaeology"—end quote. The web site also rebuts claims made in the movie. <br/ /> <br/ /> <br/ /> <br/ />
Pork Producers push for passage of free trade agreements
The vice-president of the
National Pork Producers Council says passage of pending free trade agreements with Panama, Columbia and South Korea would provide a nice boost to the pork industry.<br /> <br /> Sam Carney of Adair, Iowa testified recently on the Panama FTA before the Senate Finance Committee. Carney
estimates the Panama agreement could add 20 cents per pig, and that the Columbia FTA could be worth one dollar and 63 cents per pig. But he says the South Korea FTA is the big prize.<br /> <br /> "The most conservative figures used on the amount of pork that they would use, would
add ten dollars a pig to the U.S. pork industry," Carney says, "and that is unbelievable, when you can get ten dollars a pig more by just getting a free trade agreement with Korea."<br /> <br /> Carney says quite a bit of work remains on the Korean FTA, and that its
passage will take more time than the other two. <br /> <br />
Tweeten analyzes potential impact of tougher animal rights regs in Ohio
It’s looking more and more as if the Humane Society of the United States will pursue an animal rights ballot initiative in Ohio in 2010. And a noted ag economist—Luther Tweeten
of Ohio State University—predicts the potential impact of a "California Prop 2-type" initiative on agriculture in Ohio would be significant. <br /> <br /> Writing in the OSU Ag Manager newsletter, Tweeten says tougher regulations would cause laborers, livestock and crop
producers and the state’s economy as a whole, to suffer. He predicts Ohio’s laying hen industry, which is second in the U.S. only to Iowa, would be decimated. In fact, Tweeten says, the loss of that enterprise alone could affect nearly eight-thousand jobs and their associated income. <br />
<br /> Tweeten says diminished animal agriculture would also mean diminished crop agriculture in Ohio. Including distillers grains and corn silage, some 30 percent of Ohio’s corn crop is fed to livestock.<br /> <br /> According to Tweeten, Ohioans would face little if any higher
food prices with the imposition of Prop 2-type regulations. That’s because surrounding states would supply low-cost animal products. But Tweeten expects HSUS to address those interstate trade issues by pursuing national legislation that would impose regulations on all U.S. livestock producers. He
says, even if such measures were enacted, they would be severely undermined over time by livestock product imports from Canada, Mexico and other countries—often under animal welfare conditions below Ohio’s standards.<br /> <br />
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For more information on Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), click here. Or, you can e-mail Jesse Hooge: jessehooge@propig.com to discuss COOL and its potential effects on the pork industry.
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If you have a question that you would like to see asked as a "ProPig Poll," please e-mail it to: webmaster@propig.com.
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