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Volume , Issue
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June 27, 2008
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WEEK ENDING June 27, 2008
NPPC ASKS USDA FOR RELIEF FROM HIGH FEED PRICES
With feed prices expected to reach record levels because of federal ethanol policy and the recent flooding in the Midwest, NPPC and 20 of its state affiliates – representing 95 percent of the hogs marketed – Tuesday urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take steps to ease the pressures on U.S. pork producers. Since October, the pork industry has lost nearly $2 billion. NPPC President Bryan Black, a producer from Canal Winchester, Ohio; NPPC CEO Neil Dierks; NPPC Vice President of Public Policy Kirk Ferrell; agriculture economists Steve Meyer and Bob Wisner; and Mark Greenwood, a lender with AgriStar, met with Agriculture Secretary Ed Schaffer to ask that USDA take the following actions:
• Support a waiver of the biofuels mandate (Renewable Fuels Standard) for ethanol as requested by Governor Rick Perry of Texas. If granted, the ethanol mandate for 2008 would be cut to 4.5 billion gallons from 9 billion.
• Support the elimination of or significant reduction in the ethanol blender's tax credit.
• Support the elimination of or significant reduction in the tariff on ethanol imported into the United States.
• Release immediately and without penalty non-environmentally sensitive acres from the Conservation Reserve Program.
• Allow crop farmers to plant (at their own expense) a harvestable crop on those acres that could not be planted this spring due to weather condition, even though the farmer may have collected a disaster payment on the ground. This action also may require congressional approval, and we will ask Congress to act.
Under federal energy policy, the ethanol industry this year is required to produce 9 billion gallons of corn-ethanol. That amount would require about one-third of the 2008 corn crop, which just got smaller because of flooding in the Midwest. Gov. Perry has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to waive the ethanol mandate and to cut the production amount to 4.5 billion gallons. NPPC supports that request.
CONGRESS URGED TO QUICKLY APPROVE ANIMAL DRUG REVIEW BILLS
NPPC joined other livestock and poultry organizations on a June 24 letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to reauthorize before they begin a month-long summer recess Aug. 1 a federal animal drug review law and authorize a new animal generic drug review measure. The Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA), enacted in 2003, authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to collect fees from the animal health industry to be used for the review and approval of animal health products. The Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act (AGDUFA) would do the same thing for generic animal drugs. ADUFA expires Sept. 30. NPPC is asking Congress to quickly approve the legislation, pointing out that a delay past Aug. 1 could cost the FDA critical personnel. (Under a reduction-in-force law, federal employees must be given 60 days’ notice of lay-offs. With a Sept. 30 deadline, notices would need to be sent in late July to be received no later than Aug. 2.) NPPC and the other animal agriculture groups want lawmakers to approve ADUFA and AGDUFA without legislative changes that are outside the scope of measures, such as a ban certain animal antibiotics.
SENATE PANEL EXAMINES ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Tuesday held a hearing on antimicrobial resistance, focusing on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). While the hearing concentrated on cases of MRSA in humans contracted in hospitals or in locker room settings, two witnesses addressed the role of antimicrobials in animals. Dr. Lyle P. Vogel, assistant executive vice president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, representing the views of animal agriculture, testified that stopping the use of antibiotics in animals could have a negative impact on public and animal health. Dr. Jay P. Graham, who testified on behalf of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, told the committee that a recent swine study found that there was little to no economic benefit to using antimicrobials in animal feed. It was clear that some members of committee are supportive of efforts to limit the use of non-therapeutic drugs in livestock. NPPC recognizes the threat to public health caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and supports the judicious use of antibiotics in livestock. It encourages producers follow pork industry guidelines such as those contained in the Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) Plus and Take Care—Use Antibiotics Responsibly programs.
NPPC WORKING TO FURTHER OPEN RUSSIAN MARKET TO U.S. PORK
NPPC is working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to get Russia to eliminate trade barriers that are not consistent with that nation’s bid to become a member of the World Trade. Lifting the restrictions would give U.S. pork exporters more access to the country. Russia is fast becoming a top export destination for U.S. pork, with U.S. pork exports to Russia rising to $206 million in 2007 from about $8 million in 2003. In the first quarter of 2008, pork exports were more than double the amount they were in the same period last year. Among Russia’s barriers are zero-tolerance policies for the presence of pathogens in raw pork, poultry and beef – no country can guarantee that raw meat is free from pathogens, which pose no risk to consumers once meat is cooked properly – and for the presence in meat of antibiotic residues. Those sanitary-phytosanitary (SPS) restrictions, which appear to have been implemented as a way to curtail meat imports, violate provisions of the WTO SPS Agreement, which requires, among other things, that SPS measures be based on international standards, guidelines or recommendations. The Codex Alimentarius Commission – established by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization – has set international standards for the safe use of many antibiotics in meat production. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets the U.S. standards. Russia recently decertified for exports four U.S. pork plants because the antibiotic tetracycline was detected in pork products sent to the country even though the residue levels found by Russia were below the levels set by FDA and the Codex Alimentarius. NPPC is trying to solve a number of other issues that also threaten to impede pork exports to Russia. Despite the problems, U.S. pork exports to Russia are on track for another record year.
WHAT’S AHEAD
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY
Because Congress will be on a week-long recess starting today, there will be no Capital Update July 4.
For questions, comments and suggestions or to unsubscribe, contact: Dave Warner, Director of Communications, NPPC, at (202) 347-3600. To read previous issues of Capital Update, visit NPPC’s Web site at www.nppc.org.
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