Ag News for America
Dallas Hockman is the director of industry affairs with the National Pork Producers Council. For the past few months, Hockman has been meeting with various restaurant, grocery and food service chains that have called for the elimination of sow gestation stalls from their supply chains.
At the recent World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Hockman gave us an update on how those discussions are going. Here is part 1 of our two-part interview.
Iowa Representative Steve King was successful in attaching his “Protect Interstate Commerce Act” to the House Ag Committee’s farm bill. And King says he will fight to keep that language in the bill once it hits the House floor, and eventually, a House-Senate conference committee.
The amendment would bar states from imposing their own animal welfare standards on eggs, meat and other ag products brought in from other states.
“This will put an end to, I think, the Humane Society of the United States—whom I refer to as the ‘vegan lobby’—trying to tell us how to take care of our livestock,” King says. “We put an end to it and then HSUS can find another way to turn us all into vegans. In the end, they really want to take meat off our plate.”
King’s amendment is aimed at preventing farmers in other states from having to comply with measures such as California’s Prop 2 initiative that requires farms to provide more space to hens, hogs and other livestock.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) will hold an open forum in Lincoln, Nebraska on June 27th to discuss humane and sustainable farming.
The event, which will feature HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle, will take place at the Cornhusker Hotel starting at 6:00 p.m.
The following day, Friday the 28th, HSUS will hold a tour of Branched Oak Farm, located north of Lincoln near Raymond. Pacelle will also attend that event.
The Missouri legislature has approved the much-debated Right to Farm proposed constitutional amendment that will now go to voters next year. The Senate passed the measure Tuesday, after language* was added back in to protect the rights of local governments to govern farms and ranches as already granted them in the state constitution.
Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst says, on the whole, the measure sends an important message to animal rights activists in Missouri…
“We care about animals and we want to treat them humanely but don’t believe they have the same rights as you or I and I think it is an important step forward in that respect.”
Hurst tells Brownfield his group is pleased overall with the passage of the measure. He points out that counties have always had the right to zone, so in that sense, he says the added language is okay…
“We’re not, absolutely not putting county health ordinances IN the constitution and I don’t think that the language can be interpreted to mean that.”
But, there was another compromise that had to be made, Hurst tells Brownfield Ag News, “More importantly, we think, the original language had language to forbid the regulating of farms and ranches by initiative petition. That has been taken out, although we still feel that it does put some limits on what you can do by initiative petition.”
Hurst expects all in Missouri agriculture to get behind the ballot measure and expects voters to pass it next fall.
*[“To protect this vital sector of Missouri’s economy the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state subject to duly authorized powers of any conferred by Article Six of the constitution of Missouri.”]
The initial draft of the Senate Farm Bill, released on Thursday, does not include the so-called “egg bill” language dictating cage size for egg-laying hens.
It confirms earlier speculation that Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow would drop her plan to include the controversial provision in the farm bill markup. But National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) vice president of government affairs Colin Woodall expects it to come up again during the farm bill process.
The president of the United Egg Producers (UEP), Chad Gregory, has been highly critical of NCBA and other ag groups who are fighting against the egg bill. But NCBA’s Woodall maintains the legislation sets “a dangerous precedent”.
“And in Washington, D.C., precedent is everything,” Woodall says. “So even though this is a deal between UEP and HSUS, HSUS didn’t make any deals with us or the pork producers or anybody else in livestock—and they will use that precedent to eventually come after all of us.”
UEP’s Gregory says the egg bill is critical to the egg industry’s survival. Woodall argues federal legislation is not UEP’s only option.
“If this is really what the egg industry wants, then there are other mechanisms that they can use to push for adoption among their members—other than making Congress do the dirty work and force it upon their members,” Woodall says.
UEP represents farmers who produce nearly 90 percent of the eggs in the U.S.
Even though Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow has apparently backed off on plans to incorporate the so-called “egg bill” language into the Senate Farm Bill markup, Colin Woodall of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says the battle is far from over.
“Late word is the language has been removed,” Woodall says. “But now we are worried about an amendment situation where an amendment could be offered either during the committee markup of the farm bill, or possibly on the floor of the Senate, that would also try to get that agreement put back in.
“So even though we’ve had kind of a short-term victory, it looks like, we’re still prepared to fight this as we move forward with the Senate Farm Bill process.”
Woodall disagrees with arguments put forth by United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States that the egg bill only involves the egg industry.
“This sets a precedent of Congress dictating, or mandating, a production practice to all of us in livestock—and all of us in production agriculture—and that’s just unacceptable,” he says.
According to Woodall, who is vice president of government affairs for NCBA, the Senate Farm Bill markup is expected to take place this Thursday.
Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow has apparently backed off on plans to incorporate the so-called “egg bill” into the Senate farm bill markup.
But Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, tells Brownfield that the battle is far from over.
“Late word is the language has been removed,” Woodall says. “But now we are worried about an amendment situation where an amendment could be offered either during the committee markup of the farm bill, or possibly on the floor of the Senate, that would also try to get that agreement put back in.
“So even though we’ve had kind of a short-term victory, it looks like, we’re still prepared to fight this as we move forward with the Senate Farm Bill process.”
The Senate Farm Bill markup is expected to take place this week.
The president of Nebraska Farm Bureau says federal legislation dictating the size of cages for egg-laying hens “has no place in the Farm Bill”.
Steve Nelson was reacting to reports that Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow plans to include the so-called Egg Bill in her markup of the Senate Farm Bill, which is expected to take place next week.
“The fact that Debbie Stabenow would even consider starting the discussion on a new farm bill by including legislation initiated and advocated for by extremist organizations is a slap in the face to American farm families,” Nelson says. “Including legislation to set a ‘one size fits all’ standard for the housing and treatment of egg-laying hens would set a dangerous precedent and only encourage further bullying of farm families by activists through baseless legal actions and public smear campaigns.”
Nelson says such action by Stabenow “threatens the prospects of passing a much needed farm bill”.
“This is a huge issue and it certainly takes the regulatory control of government well beyond where we’ve been and into an area where it’s just completely unnecessary to have this kind of regulation in the farm bill,” Nelson says. “I still hope that there’s some way that some common sense will prevail and they’ll say ‘no, this doesn’t need to be in the farm bill’—and then they can move on.”
Agri-Pulse says Stabenow is being pressured by the Michigan Agri-business Association and others who support the Egg Bill, which is the result of an agreement between the Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers.
The president of Nebraska Farm Bureau says federal legislation dictating the size of cages for egg-laying hens—the so-called Egg Bill—“has no place in the Farm Bill”.
Steve Nelson says the fact that Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow is reportedly proposing such a move is, in his words, “a slap in the face to American farm families”. And he says to start the farm bill discussion with the egg measure threatens the prospects for passing the farm bill.
The Humane Society of the United States and singer Carrie Underwood are among those pressuring Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to veto a bill they say would end undercover investigations of animal abuse in the state.
The bill requires anyone who photographs or videos livestock cruelty to report the violation to a local law enforcement agency and submit any photos or recordings to them within 48 hours.
HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle says the bill is part of a national movement to silence whistleblowers and cover up animal abuse. HSUS is running television ads encouraging Tennesseans to contact the governor’s office to encourage a veto.
Carrie Underwood, a supporter of HSUS, took to Twitter to scold Tennessee lawmakers for passing the bill.
“Shame on TN lawmakers for passing the Ag Gag bill,” Underwood tweeted last week. “If Gov. Bill Haslam signs this, he needs to expect me at this front door. Who’s with me?”
Media groups also oppose the bill, saying it would hinder journalists and others from documenting abuse.
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