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Another ‘antibiotics’ bill introduced

May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Another piece of legislation aimed at curbing the use of antibiotics in livestock has been introduced in Congress. 

The Antimicrobial Data Collection Act in the Senate calls for increased data collection by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and “enhanced transparency and public awareness of antimicrobial use in agriculture.” Similar legislation was introduced earlier in the House.

Meanwhile, the FDA is proceeding with plans to place new restrictions on certain antibiotics that are used for growth promotion in livestock.  The FDA initiative would also require more veterinary oversight of antimicrobial use.  National Pork Producers Association chief veterinarian Dr. Liz Wagstrom says that, once those new rules are in place, it should eliminate the need for Congressional action.

“I believe that the FDA actions that are being taken now are going to accomplish about 90 percent of what they want to do legislatively,” Wagstrom says. “These steps are going to make real changes in our uses of antibiotics and will answer many of the concerns that the people who have been involved in those Congressional actions may have.”

Wagstrom made those comments Wednesday in an interview with Brownfield at an FDA meeting on antimicrobial use that took place in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Link to previous story and interview with Liz Wagstrom

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Opinions on antibiotics vary widely

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving ahead with new restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture.  But there is still a big difference of opinion over whether those new rules are necessary—or whether they go far enough.

Dr. Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian for the National Pork Producers Council, says they’re still not convinced that the use of antibiotics in livestock is the big issue.

“On a scientific basis, we’re not sure that growth promotion uses of antibiotics need to end,” Wagstrom says, “because we don’t feel that there is a proven negative public health impact to those uses.”

AUDIO: Liz Wagstrom (5:44 MP3)

But Susan Vaugh Grooters with the Center for Science in the Public Interest argues FDA’s voluntary restrictions on antibiotic use are not enough.

“Addressing a public health crisis like antibiotic resistance, with a voluntary approach, is inherently flawed,” Vaughn Grooters says. “We need the FDA to use their regulatory authority to protect the public health with a more enforcement mindset than they are now.”

AUDIO: Susan Vaughn Grooters (2:52 MP3)

Wagstrom and Vaughn Grooters were participants in a recent FDA-sponsored meeting in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The purpose of the meeting was to gather public input on the FDA’s proposed restrictions on antibiotic use combined with increased veterinary oversight of antimicrobial use.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, Top Stories, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Livestock groups applaud FSIS funding action

March 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Two major livestock groups say they’re pleased with the action taken by Congress to prevent furloughs of federal meat inspectors.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) are applauding the move, which gives USDA the flexibility to shift 55 million dollars from other accounts to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). 

NPPC president Randy Spronk calls it “very good news for pork producers and other livestock and poultry producers”.  He says the furloughs would have had negative effects on pork producers, meat packers and consumers.

NCBA president Scott George agrees, saying a halt in inspections would have “resulted in a backlog of animals, shortened supply of beef to market, higher prices and harm to the futures markets.”

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NPPC head foresees better relations with EPA

March 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The newly-elected president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is expressing optimism that the next head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will change the agency’s culture and attitudes about livestock production.

NPPC president Randy Spronk thinks Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s nominee to be the new EPA administrator, will work to change what he calls the “us versus them” culture in the EPA and will treat pork producers as partners and not adversaries.

McCarthy has worked in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation for the past four-years.  Spronk says that while the pork industry hasn’t always agreed with McCarthy, she has historically been willing to hear pork producers’ concerns.

Spronk’s comments were in a column he recently wrote for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.

Meanwhile, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt reportedly has placed a hold on the McCarthy nomination.  Blunt says he will continue to block her confirmation until the Army Corps of Engineers provides an overdue update on repairing the Mississippi River levee in Southeast Missouri that it blew open for flood relief in Illinois in 2011.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, Top Stories, USDA/Government Tagged With: , ,

Ag groups welcome U.S.-EU trade talks

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A coalition of U.S. food and agricultural organizations led by the National Pork Producers Council is praising the Obama administration for launching negotiations with the European Union (EU) on a transatlantic free trade agreement (FTA)—and for its insistence that the agreement be comprehensive and ambitious.

In a letter signed by 64 organizations sent Monday to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the coalition said any FTA with the EU “must fit the excellent model established with the Trans-Pacific Partnership”, meaning all significant trade barriers should be covered in a single comprehensive agreement.

The coalition expressed concern with a trade working group report that suggested an initial U.S.-EU FTA be designed to “evolve over time,” eliminating most barriers to trade and investment but setting up a mechanism to address other barriers.

Recent statements from EU officials, for example, have raised doubts about the EU’s commitment to dealing with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues as part of the negotiations.

SPS issues must be addressed as part of the negotiations, the coalition wrote, not simply left to some future consultative mechanism.  It also stressed that SPS provisions must be enforceable.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, USDA/Government, World Ag News/Trade Tagged With: , , , ,

NPPC CEO on sequestration, possible meat plant shutdowns

February 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The CEO of the National Pork Producers Council, Neil Dierks, was in West Point, Nebraska Tuesday for the Nebraska Pork Industry Day event.  In discussing the issue of sequestration with Brownfield, Dierks said it’s unclear if Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s comments regarding a furlough of federal meat inspectors are just political rhetoric or a real possibility.  But Dierks says there’s no doubt that a shutdown of meat processing plants would have a  negative ripple effect on the entire pork industry.

AUDIO: Neil Dierks (3:39 MP3)

Filed Under: Feature Programs, Rural Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

NPPC ‘feels betrayed’ by EPA

February 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says it is “extremely troubled” by the federal EPA’s release of personal information on U.S. livestock and poultry producers to several activist groups.

EPA in early February released raw data from farms in 30 states, including, in some instances, farmers’ home addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earth Justice and the Pew Charitable Trusts under Freedom of Information Act requests filed by those groups.

“The release of data containing personal and confidential information is extremely troubling; we feel betrayed,” says NPPC President R.C. Hunt, a hog farmer from Wilson, North Carolina. “We are very concerned for farmers and with the ability of those opposed to modern livestock and poultry farms to manipulate that data to advance their extremist agenda.

 “What’s ironic,” Hunt says, “is that, in the name of transparency, EPA released information in secret and violated the privacy rights of farmers across the country.”

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News Tagged With: , , , ,

Pork producers remain opposed to egg bill

January 24, 2013 By 2 Comments

Despite Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack’s recent admonishment to livestock groups that they need to stop fighting with each other, one of Iowa’s representatives on the  National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) board of directors says the group remains firmly opposed to the so-called “egg bill” in Congress.

John Weber of Dysart, Iowa says NPPC still believes that the legislation, which dictates cage size for egg-laying hens, would set a very bad precedent for the livestock industry.

“We certainly want to stay away from federal mandated legislation dictating on-farm production,” Weber says. “We want to maintain that independence—that freedom for producers to make a choice on how they produce pork.”

As congressional ag committees prepare to restart the farm bill process, there is some speculation that the main proponents of the egg bill—the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States—may attempt to attach the legislation to the next farm bill.

“We think that’s a possibility that there could be an attempt to introduce it as part of the farm bill, or the livestock title,” Weber says. “It’s certainly eligible to come up as a stand-alone piece of legislation, or it’s eligible to be attached to other pieces of legislation.

“So we are just basically taking a wait-and-see—or observation—pattern on it.  We want to follow it very closely.”

In a recent interview with Brownfield, Ag Secretary Vilsack cited opposition to the egg bill, from other farm groups, as an example of the kind of in-fighting that he—Vilsack—believes is damaging rural America’s political influence.

AUDIO: John Weber (4:51 MP3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

NPPC not ready to throw in the towel on stalls just yet

January 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

You can add General Mills and Marriott International to the list of food companies calling for the elimination of gestation stalls. 

That brings to more than 50 the number of companies that have made such announcements. 

But the pork industry is not ready to throw in the towel on stalls just yet.  At this week’s Iowa Pork Producers Association annual meeting in Des Moines, we discussed the issue with John Weber, a producer from Dysart, Iowa and a member of the National Pork Producers Council board of directors. 

Weber also talked about NPPC’s opposition to the egg bill in Congress and speculation that supporters may attempt to include the legislation in the next farm bill.

AUDIO: John Weber (4:51 MP3)

Filed Under: Feature Programs, Rural Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

NCBA, NPPC like traceability plan

December 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The nation’s largest cattle and hog organizations are applauding the final animal disease traceability rule from USDA. 

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says it’s important that the rule didn’t come with additional costs and won’t hinder the speed of commerce.  Most important to cattle producers, NCBA says, is the announcement of separate rulemaking for beef cattle under 18 months of age. 

The National Pork Producers Council also offered praise, calling the program vital to the pork industry’s ability to more quickly control and eradicate foreign animal diseases and keep export markets open.

USDA plans to publish the new rule in the December 28 Federal Register. Its provisions will take effect 60 days later, on February 26, 2013.

Filed Under: Dairy, Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, Top Stories, USDA/Government, World Ag News/Trade Tagged With: , , , ,
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