News

State ag department heads discuss food safety, TPP

At the NASDA conference in Washington, Nebraska ag director and NASDA president Greg Ibach discusses ag issues with U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. (photo courtesy NASDA)

At the NASDA conference in Washington, Nebraska ag director and NASDA president Greg Ibach discusses ag issues with U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. (photo courtesy NASDA)

State agriculture department heads, at their winter policy conference in Washington, D.C., are expressing concern about implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Nebraska ag director Greg Ibach is the president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). He tells Brownfield most state ag departments have a role in food safety and will be impacted by new regulations being developed by the Food and Drug Administration.

“First of all, we want to make sure that those regulations work for the farmers and ranchers that are producing food on their farms,” Ibach says. “But also, with the expectation of new regulations, we want to make sure that they don’t become an unfunded mandate—that there’s money there to support the increased inspection activities that they’re asking each state to do.”

Ibach says the Food Safety Modernization Act is not just about safe produce. He says there are also broad implications for agriculture in both the animal and human food rules.

The state ag directors also weighed in on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

“We passed a resolution that said we were going to support the TPP ratification and passage in Congress—and that we are going to work to try to achieve that passage,” Ibach says.

American agriculture cannot afford a loss of momentum on the TPP agreement, Ibach says.

AUDIO: Greg Ibach

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!