Special Report

Vilsack: Ongoing communication with EPA

Increasing challenges brought by Environmental Protection Agency rules, regulations and proposals have many farmers seeing the EPA working against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  But, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says he has encouraged EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to stay in touch with agriculture and she does.

Vilsack says, “She meets with commodity groups – livestock producing groups and commodity groups – on a regular basis so that there’s an interchange and exchange of ideas and concerns.”

The staffs of both agencies, he says, make recommendations on policy, “Which is why we worked with EPA on the Waters of the U.S., for example, to identify specific conservation practices that won’t require permitting, that won’t require notification that might not have otherwise been there but for us pointing out how this might potentially impact producers.”

Vilsack say the USDA is engaged in advising and consulting the EPA and that will continue, “I can’t tell her how to run her agency. She can’t tell me how to run USDA. But, there is communication and we have also encouraged her to go to farms to actually visit in rural areas which she has done and which she will continue to do.”

Vilsack’s comments were made at the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) Strategic Investment Program (SIP) luncheon at the 2014 World Pork Expo.