JANUARY 19, 2009 - The National Pork Producers Council today filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to require livestock farms to file reports under the Environmental Protection and Community Right To Know Act (EPCRA). NPPC also is alleging that EPA violated the due process rights of farmers by failing to develop an adequate system to accept the reports, making compliance with the law impossible.
Under a rulemaking issued Dec. 18, EPA decided that large livestock farms would be required to file mandatory reports on air emissions by first making phone calls to their state and local emergency response authorities, then by filing a written notification of emissions estimates. Farms that fail to comply will face penalties of $25,000 per day. The rule goes into effect Jan. 20, 2009, the first day of the Obama administration.
“In sticking the agricultural community with this unworkable rule,” said NPPC President Bryan Black, a pork producer from Canal Winchester, Ohio, “EPA not only failed to provide any guidance to farmers on compliance with the new regulation or develop an adequate system to handle the volume of reports that would be filed, but it actively engaged in efforts that undermined the ability of farmers to comply with this new, stringent rule.”
Among those efforts, EPA told state officials not to accept reports and provided on its Web site false and out-of-date information on filing reports. Additionally, the agency did not issue guidance for complying with the rule until 4:30 p.m. Jan. 16 – the last business day before the filing deadline – giving America’s 67,000 pork producers and hundreds of thousands of other livestock farmers only 30 minutes to receive, read and interpret the guidance and to develop and file the appropriate emissions report.
In the lawsuit it filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, NPPC is challenging EPA’s decision to exclude livestock operations from the EPCRA agriculture exemption and asking the court to enjoin EPA from enforcing the rule until the agency develops a system that will allow producers to comply.
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JANUARY 15, 2009 - The National Pork Producers Council today applauded the Bush administration’s move to keep certain pork cuts on, and to add new ones to, the list of European Union products against which the U.S. retaliates for the EU’s illegal ban on U.S. beef imports. The retaliation is a 100 percent tariff on listed products.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced today that fresh and frozen hams, shoulders and some other cuts will remain on the retaliation list the United States first initiated in 1999. Added to the list are pork ribs from Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden. USTR also expanded the retaliation on bone-in dried and smoked hams and shoulders from France to all EU countries except the United Kingdom.
In comments submitted to USTR in December, NPPC urged that pork products continue to be included as part of the retaliation, which commenced after a World Trade Organization panel found that the EU ban on imports of U.S. beef from cattle treated with hormones was illegal under WTO rules. The EU refused to end the ban, and the WTO authorized the U.S. to retaliate by raising import duties on $116.8 million of EU products.
“Keeping pork on the retaliation list and adding new pork products is appropriate,” said NPPC President Bryan Black, a pork producer from Canal Winchester, Ohio, “because retaliation on pork has a negative effect on the EU pork industry, which increases the likelihood that the EU will comply with the WTO’s beef ruling.
“There are strong ties between the economic welfare of the U.S. beef and pork industries,” said Black, who added that using pork in the retaliation may prompt the EU to reconsider its array of tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. pork exports, obstacles that significantly diminish sales of U.S. pork to one of the most lucrative markets in the world.”
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JANUARY 14, 2009 - The National Pork Producers Council today applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to clarify a number of issues related to and make several improvements to the National Animal Identification System.
USDA yesterday issued a proposed rule that would make changes to the NAIS, including adding a requirement that official animal identification tags used for disease programs include a premises identification number (PIN). The main goal of the NAIS is the ability to trace back animals to their farm of origin within 48 hours in case of an animal disease.
NPPC supports a mandatory NAIS and has requested that packers require PINs as a condition of sale. The organization will urge the incoming Obama administration to make the NAIS mandatory for all relevant species.
“The NAIS, with premises registration, will help us trace back to a specific location so that there can be a quick, appropriate response to an animal health emergency to help protect our herds, our operations and our export markets,” said NPPC President Bryan Black, a pork producer from Canal Winchester, Ohio. “NPPC commends USDA for its efforts to improve and implement this important program.”
NPPC and the National Pork Board have been working for more than three years to register swine premises. Through 2008, about 54,000, or 80 percent, of the estimated 67,300 hog farms had been registered. The two organizations in 2005 formed a Swine Identification Implementation Task Force made up of producers and other industry stakeholders to enhance the existing swine ID system, which was set up in 1988 and used successfully to eradicate pseudorabies from the commercial herd.
Premises registration data includes the physical location of a farm, a contact telephone number and other public information.
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JANUARY 12, 2009 - A final rule implementing the Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL) law provides flexibility for the U.S. pork industry but remains a costly and potentially cumbersome statute, said the National Pork Producers Council. The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the final rule today.
The law requires muscle cuts of pork, beef, lamb and goat meat to be labeled in one of four categories:
- Category A: Pork from hogs “born, raised and slaughtered” in the U.S. must be labeled a product of the U.S.
- Category B: Pork from hogs born in Canada but raised and slaughtered in the United States, such as Canadian feeder pigs, must be labeled a product of the U.S. and Canada. Pork from a group of U.S.-born and Canadian-born hogs that are raised and slaughtered in the U.S. also may be labeled in Category B.
- Category C: Pork from hogs born and raised in Canada but brought in for immediate slaughter in the U.S. must be labeled a product of Canada and the U.S. The final rule allows pork that falls into Category B to be labeled under Category C.
- Category D: Pork from hogs born, raised and slaughter in Canada and imported into the U.S. must be labeled a product of Canada.
Animals in the United States on or before July 15, 2008, are considered “of U.S. origin.” Ground meat products can be labeled with a list of countries or possible countries from which they were derived.
The law also allows producers to use normal business records to verify their hogs’ origin.
Despite the flexibility provided in the implementing regulation, the MCOOL law has been estimated to cost the livestock industry $2.5 billion initially and nearly $212 million annually over the next 10 years. Already there is anecdotal evidence that pork producers have incurred higher transportation costs because some packing plants will process only U.S.-origin pigs, and packers are directing Canadian-born pigs to other plants.
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