News
Not much support for PEDv compensation
The question of whether the federal government should provide financial assistance to pork producers impacted by the PED virus is being discussed in the nation’s capital.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the USDA’s disaster assistance programs don’t really apply in this case.
“The Livestock Indemnity Program is really designed when Mother Nature causes a problem,” Vilsack says. “The ELAP program is really focused on sort of niche areas of trees and honeybees—and there’s only 20 million dollars in that account—and if you were to suggest that that’s a source of compensation, it would have to be ten times that size to deal with the losses that have occurred.”
Vilsack says it would be up to Congress to approve disaster assistance for pork producers. But Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a member of the Senate Ag Committee, is doubtful that will happen.
“I have not heard enough talk among members of Congress on this issue—or even on the ag committee—that I can say that there’s a nucleus to move it along,” Grassley says.
Grassley says the cost of such a program would make it a tough sell in Congress.
Feeble argument by Vilsack, IMO. I’m NOT a pork farmer, but it seems to me that cutting some of the wasteful federal bureaucracy “crusades” against some small industries (e.g., against pet breeders) would enable them to help pork farmers and thus help our food supply.
Has anyone definitely identified the ground zero of PEDv? Every time I hear about this type of thing spreading like wildfire, and considering the protocols in place to prevent contamination/spread of diseases, what occurs to me is biosabotage, e.g., by the domestic animal rights terrorists who would love to cripple any animal industry to which they could gain access through food, water, etc. And there’s the H$U$ stupidly screaming about accepted protocols to contain PEDv–shows how little the AR-led group knows or cares, doesn’t it?