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State and USDA agreement creates new Ag Water Quality Certification Program

View Memorandum of Understanding (pdf)

U.S. Pork Trade and Export Update (Jan. 4, 2012)

• January - September Export Statistics
• Clarification on Export Data Usage
• Japan Asks to Join TPP Trade Talks
• Pork Leadership Institute Travels to Mexico
• US Officials Travel to China to Discuss SPS Issues
• Russian SPS Barries Unresolved as it Moves Towards WTO Membership
• WTO Rules Against MCOOL
• NPPC Attends Meetings in Switzerland
• South Korean President Signs US-Korea FTA Into Law
• Occupy Groups Threaten West Coast Ports
• USMEF-Mexico Updates Export Guidelines
• Philippines Situation Improving but Slow
• Panama Export Guidelines

Minnesota Board of Animal Health Animal Bytes January Newsletter 2012

Board of Animal Health Hosts Foreign Animal Disease Workshops

County officials in Minnesota have been hosting workshops geared towards agricultural emergency preparedness.  Veterinarians and farmers are welcomed to attend to learn more about how Minnesota would respond to a devastating livestock disease, such as foot-and-mouth disease.  The workshops are free and include lunch. MORE

High Court Tosses California ‘Downer’ Law

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2012 – In a unanimous decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law that bans the processing of all non-ambulatory animals, including hogs. NPPC hailed the ruling.

The California Legislature approved the law in 2008 after a video was released by animal activists, showing non-ambulatory, or “downed,” cows at a California beef packing plant being dragged and prodded to enter the processing line. The statute prohibited the buying, selling, or receiving of non-ambulatory animals, the processing, butchering or selling of meat or products from non-ambulatory animals for human consumption and the holding of non-ambulatory animals without taking immediate action to humanely euthanize them.[As part of its efforts to address Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or “mad cow” disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture already forbids the slaughter of “downed” cattle.]

The National Meat Association (NMA) challenged the law, and a federal district court judge in California blocked it. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco in 2010 overturned the lower court ruling. NMA appealed the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) pre-empts the California law.

The high court agreed with NMA, ruling that the FMIA “expressly pre-empts” the California law’s application to federally inspected swine slaughterhouses. It reversed the Ninth Circuit decision and sent the case back to that court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling affirms the supremacy of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and USDA’s role in regulating meat process plants,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a hog farmer from Lancaster, Wis. “It also recognized that non-ambulatory hogs with proper recovery time and veterinary oversight do not need to be condemned immediately in all cases.”

NPPC, which along with the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and the National Farmers Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, argued that the California law would create an animal health risk and criminalizes the work of federal slaughterhouse inspectors. The organization also has pointed out that the state law could have prevented from being shipped to California meat processed in another state that did not adhere to the statute’s ban.

“Non-ambulatory hogs that are allowed to recover pose no food-safety risk to the public,” Wolf said. “Such pigs are inspected by USDA inspectors and veterinarians regarding their fitness for processing and entering the human food supply, and strong regulatory safeguards for humane treatment in the processing of animals already exist.”

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NPPC Opposes Federal ‘Farm Takeover Bill’

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2012 – The National Pork Producers Council criticized congressional legislation introduced today that would prescribe cage sizes for egg-laying hens, saying it would set a “dangerous precedent” for allowing the federal government to regulate on-farm production practices, including animal housing.

The legislation seeks to codify an agreement the Humane Society of the United States came to with the egg industry. HSUS agreed to forego trying to pass state ballot initiatives that would dictate egg production practices and to stop 10 years of litigation against and undercover investigations of the egg industry in exchange for egg producers nearly doubling the size of their cages for laying hens. In addition to cage sizes, the bill, H.R. 3798, includes labeling requirements for eggs and new air-quality standards for hen houses.

“This HSUS-backed legislation would set a dangerous precedent that could let Washington bureaucrats dictate how livestock and poultry producers raise and care for their animals,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a hog farmer from Lancaster, Wis. “We don’t need or want the federal government and HSUS telling us how to do our jobs.”

“This one-size-fits-all farm takeover bill is government intrusion on family farms at its worst and is unnecessary,” he added. “If enacted, it would open Pandora’s Box for special interest groups to pursue similar federal laws on pig farmers, dairy farmers and other family farming operations.”

NPPC says the legislation would take away producers’ freedom to operate in ways that are best for their animals, make it difficult to respond to consumer demands, raise retail food prices and take away consumer choice, devastate small and niche producers and, at a time of constrained budgets for agriculture, redirect valuable resources from enhancing food safety and maintaining the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture to regulating on-farm production practices for reasons other than public and animal health.

Treating farm animals humanely is an age-old principle for American farmers, and it’s a standard that doesn’t require an act of Congress,” said Wolf. “Unnecessary legislative mandates will only add financial burdens on American consumers and family-owned small businesses that are struggling in a fragile economy.”

NPPC is urging congressional lawmakers to oppose the “Farm Takeover Bill.”

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APPLAUDS SUPREME COURT ‘DOWNER’ LIVESTOCK RULING

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday, by unanimous vote, overturned a California law that bans the processing of all non-ambulatory livestock, including hogs. The court said the state law drifted too far into federal jurisdiction over protecting public health and animal welfare. The law demanded non-ambulatory animals at packing plants be immediately euthanized. The high court was asked by the National Meat Association to find that the Federal Meat Inspection Act pre-empts the state statute. The California Legislature approved the law in 2008 after a grotesque video filmed and released by the Humane Society of the United States, showing non-ambulatory, or “downed,” cows at a California beef packing plant being dragged and inhumanely prodded to enter the processing line. [The U.S. Department of Agriculture has for many years has forbidden the slaughter of non-ambulatory cattle for human consumption or other uses because of concerns over BSE, or “mad cow” disease. Pigs cannot contract BSE.] A federal district court judge blocked the California law, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco in 2010 overturned the lower court ruling. NPPC, along with the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and the National Farmers Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, arguing that the California law would create an animal health risk and criminalize the work of federal slaughterhouse inspectors. NPPC has pointed out that, after transport from the farm to the packing plant, hogs can become non-ambulatory from fatigue. With rest, the overwhelming majority of them will walk, and processing them poses no food-safety or public-health risk. To read the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, click here. 

HSUS ‘FARM TAKEOVER BILL’ INTRODUCED

A united group of agricultural organizations, including NPPC, was quick to oppose Monday’s introduction of federal legislation born from a 2010 agreement reached by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) with the United Egg Producers. H.R. 3798, the “Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012,” seeks to legislate how egg-laying hens are housed. HSUS agreed to forego trying to pass state ballot initiatives that would set egg production practices and to stop 10 years of litigation against and undercover investigations of the egg industry in exchange for egg producers nearly doubling the size of their cages for laying hen houses. In addition to legislating cage sizes, the bill mandates new federal egg labels and sets federal air-quality standards for hen houses. NPPC opposes what it has dubbed the “Farm Takeover Bill” because it would set a dangerous precedent by legislating federal on-farm production practices. NPPC supports the right of producers to use production systems that provide for the well-being of their animals; NPPC does not support federal legislation that specifies how producers should raise their animals. To read NPPC’s press release, click here.

FOOD, AGRICULTURAL GROUPS BACK U.S.-EU FTA

A coalition of food and agricultural organizations led by NPPC in a letter sent Tuesday to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) expressed its support for a free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. Such an FTA is a likely option to be considered by a joint international working group on jobs and growth chaired by USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. “Carried out properly,” the coalition wrote in its letter to Kirk, “such an agreement would indeed generate economic growth and create many thousands of new jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, this would require that the EU be prepared to negotiate and implement the type of high-standard, 21st-century agreement that is central to the [Obama] administration’s trade policy efforts,” wrote the coalition. “Free trade deals negotiated by the EU with other countries certainly do not come close to meeting those standards.” The coalition also pointed out that EU regulatory measures, such as ones imposed on genetically modified foods and meat production practices, including the restriction on U.S. pork produced with the FDA-approved feed additive ractopamine, often conflict with the interests of the United States and with World Trade Organization rules. Additionally, the EU often has sought to circumvent WTO rules by using its 27 votes in international standard-setting bodies such as the U.N.’s Codex Alimentarius to “legitimize” non-science-based measures, the coalition pointed out. Nearly 50 organizations signed the letter to Kirk. Click here to read the coalition letter.

HOUSE AG COMMITTEE APPROVES SIX BILLS

The House Agriculture Committee Wednesday held a full committee meeting to markup and approve six bills that amended Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, including: H.R. 1840, “To improve consideration by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the costs and benefits of its regulations and orders”; H.R. 2682, “Business Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2011”; H.R. 2779, “To exempt inter-affiliate swaps from certain regulatory requirements put in place by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act”; H.R. 2586, the “Swap Execution Facility (SEF) Clarification Act”; H.R. 3336, the “Small Business Credit Availability Act”; and H.R. 3527, “Protecting Main Street End-Users from Excessive Regulation.” H.R. 1840 passed without amendment; the remaining five bills were amended to clarify treatment of affiliate transactions (H.R. 2779), margin requirements (H.R. 2682), swap execution facility definition (H.R. 2586), exclusions from the financial entity definition (H.R. 3336), and swap dealer definition (H.R. 3527).

NPPC MEETS WITH FILIPINO TRADE OFFICIALS

NPPC Vice President and Counsel for International Affairs Nick Giordano this week met with Filipino officials to discuss current Philippine trade restrictive policies for the importation of U.S. pork products. In November 2010, Administrative Order (AO) 22 was implemented by the Philippine Department of Agriculture, which contains strict mandates pertaining to the refrigeration, traceability, labeling and packaging requirements for frozen pork. Such restrictions, which favor domestic pork production, had a markedly adverse effect on 2011 U.S. pork exports to the Philippines. The Philippine government recently has proposed another AO to address the restrictions, but it falls short of a complete resolution. In addition to the problems with AO 22, in November the Philippines stopped issuing Veterinary Quality Certificates (VQC) for the importation of pork and other meat. The Philippines’ refusal to issue the VQC acted as an effective import ban. From January to November 2010, the United States exported to the Philippines 49,044 metric tons (MT) of pork, totaling $96.7 million. During the same period in 2011, U.S. pork exports to the Philippines dropped to 35,413 MT, valued at $83.3 million – a nearly 28 percent decrease in volume and almost a 14 percent decrease in value over the past year. NPPC will continue to work with the Philippines in an effort to remove the limitations to U.S. pork exports.

WHAT’S AHEAD

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE TO HOLD SECOND MF GLOBAL HEARING

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing Thursday on the collapse of MF Global.

HEARING ON FARM LABOR PROPOSAL SET The House Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade will hold a hearing Thursday on “The Future of the Family Farm: The Effect of Proposed DOL Regulations on Small Business Producers.” The hearing will feature testimony from a Missouri hog farmer on behalf of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

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.  Follow NPPC on Twitter, view NPPC’s Facebook page, and keep up to date with Hogs on the Hill.  

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