Food Safety Issues
Alicia Mundy reported yesterday at The Wall Street Journal Online that, “The criminal division of the Food and Drug Administration and the Justice Department have joined the probe of the Iowa farm at the heart of the recent egg recall linked to an outbreak of salmonella, according to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
“‘There is a formal investigation going on that extends beyond the FDA inspections that are focused on farm practice,’ Dr. Hamburg told reporters Wednesday. ‘It is the case that an investigation is under way. We are pursuing it with our partners in law enforcement.’”
The Journal article added that, “FDA spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said Wednesday that federal agents visited both Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the second producer involved in the recall, on Tuesday.”
“Wright spokeswoman Hinda Mitchell said FDA officials were at Wright on Tuesday, and she said she believed FBI agents were also present. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.”
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Disaster Aid- Farm Bill
John Lyon reported earlier this week at the Arkansas News Online that, “A recent spate of editorials in the national press knocking U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s efforts to secure $1.5 billion in disaster aid for farmers [Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal] shows how the East Coast media misunderstands the importance of agriculture, Lincoln said today.
“‘It’s certainly nothing new for the East Coast newspapers to be extremely critical of agricultural support, that’s for sure,’ Lincoln said in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau. ‘I think it’s just another example of how those folks truly, I don’t think, understand production agriculture and how important it is to our economy and how important is to feeding the world.’
“Lincoln, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, won a fight in July to include $1.5 billion in agricultural disaster aid in a bill to aid small businesses, but Republican senators voted to block the bill. The Obama administration, which supported the small-business bill, promised to provide the disaster aid administratively in exchange for Lincoln agreeing to drop the provision from the bill.”
Mr. Lyon explained that, “Critics say the aid package is an end run around the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments, or SURE, program, which was included in the 2008 Farm Bill. The program sought to reform farm subsidies by offering formula-based payments to farmers who signed up for federally subsidized crop insurance.
“‘We’ve not had a single farmer sign up for this program in Arkansas because it’s not effective for the crops that we grow and how we grow them,’ Lincoln said. ‘It’s very similar in other Southern states.’”
“Another complaint is that most of the money will go to the wealthiest farmers. Lincoln said the payments follow production,” the article noted.
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Food Safety
Philip Brasher reported yesterday at the Green Fields Blog (Des Moines Register) that, “The Food and Drug Administration says it found numerous sanitation and biosecurity lapses, including live mice, in the Iowa hen houses that have been linked to a salmonella outbreak and a nationwide egg recall.
“Mice are one of the main sources of salmonella bacteria on egg farms. The farms are required by industry standards and now government regulations to make sure that mice and other rodents can’t get in hen houses and infect the birds with salmonella.
“However, in reports released today [click here, and here] investigators said they found mice in four farms operated by Galt-based Wright County Egg. The investigators also said they saw rodent burrows, structural damage to houses, gaps around doors, wild birds flying around, and ‘live and dead flies too numerous to count.’”
Mr. Brasher noted that, “FDA officials said they are working with the farms to correct the problems but did not say what other actions they may take, although their options include criminal prosecutions. Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, said the agency would start inspecting other farms around the country in September. The agency has not inspected eggs except in the case of outbreaks because it had no regulations for egg farms until July 9.
“Hongwei Xin, an expert in poultry housing at Iowa State University, said he’s visited 50 to 70 egg farms in Iowa, including ones operated by major producers Sparboe Farms and Rose Acre Farms, and has never seen the combination of conditions described in the FDA reports and has never observed mice or wild birds in hen houses. ‘This is not very typical at all,’ he said.”
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Farm Bill
On Friday, USDA issued a statement indicating that, “U.S. Department of Agriculture Press Secretary Justin DeJong today released the following statement in response to the recent Bloomberg/Business Week story titled ‘Broadband Trumps Farmer Payments in Rural Aid’:
“‘The Obama Administration cares deeply about our farmers and ranchers, and USDA continues to work hard and provide them with the critical support they need to provide this nation with the food, feed, fiber and fuel we rely on. Since becoming Secretary of this department, Secretary Vilsack has advocated fiercely about the need to keep American agriculture strong through farm safety net programs, as well as through efforts to spur economic opportunity in rural America. In recent interviews with a Bloomberg reporter, at NO time did Secretary Vilsack call for $5 billion cuts to farm programs. In fact, he pointed out how USDA already saved $4 billion that was put toward deficit reduction by renegotiating our agreement with crop insurance companies. He also discussed using existing resources more effectively to spur growth and opportunity. As Secretary Vilsack testified before both Senate and House committees regarding the 2012 Farm Bill and he continues to discuss with people throughout the country, rural America continues to face inordinate challenges. As the transcript makes clear, he continues making the case that it is imperative that we keep the farm safety net strong so that the American people can continue to have access to safe, affordable and abundant food.’
“Full transcripts from interviews that took place Thursday, August 5, 2010, and on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 are available.”
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Farm Bill
Bloomberg writer Alan Bjerga reported yesterday that, “Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack knows that Farm Belt protocol requires paying respect to the Butter Cow. During a visit to the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 17, he made the pilgrimage to the 600-pound bovine sculpture carved from pure creamery butter. Now that he is U.S. Agriculture secretary, Vilsack wants to take a chunk out of another sacred cow: $15.4 billion in farm subsidies.
“Record federal deficits and changing priorities are spurring President Barack Obama’s administration to redirect who gets rural aid. The government is shifting payments to broadband providers, land-conservation efforts and nutrition programs, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Aug. 30 issue.
“To many farmers, the changes seem designed to satisfy organic-food devotees, first lady Michelle Obama’s anti- obesity cause, weekend duck hunters, and small-town Internet users –everyone, that is, except traditional farmers. Kris Luoma, 55, a cattle rancher and crop- insurance salesman visiting the Iowa fair from Arcadia, Nebraska, blames the ignorance of Washington policy makers.”
Yesterday’s article indicated that, “Vilsack’s USDA in July trimmed $6 billion in payments to crop insurers such as San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. for the next decade. Now he’s looking at cuts of as much as $5 billion a year from an automatic payments program that compensates farmers even if they grow nothing. Vilsack is the chief messenger of this makeover, a turnabout for farmers who have known him as one of their staunchest advocates.”
Mr. Bjerga pointed out that, “Agriculture payments have withstood challenges before. The last real attempt to cut subsidies, in 1996, led to a backlash — and bailout checks for farmers after export declines and heat waves persuaded lawmakers to abandon cost-cutting. This time, the $1.3 trillion annual federal deficit will make changes stick, said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat whose district’s $243 million in 2009 subsidy payments ranked it No. 6 out of 435.”
More specifically with respect to executive branch farm policy perspective, the Bloomberg article stated that, “With more farmers relying on small-town jobs to make ends meet, and even then with incomes trailing those in urban areas by 29 percent, rural economies need to diversify, Vilsack said. Done right, government programs will benefit everyone, he added, including crop growers and ranchers who need thriving communities nearby.”
Mr. Bjerga explained that, “While as much as $5 billion in automatic payments to farmers would go to the administration’s new rural initiatives instead, Vilsack said he’s hopeful that deficit-cutting demands will be satisfied by the reductions in crop insurance.
“Still, some growers and lawmakers worry that the White House will force further cuts in automatic payments, which farmers use to finance bank loans. And they’re concerned about unintended consequences from dramatic shifts in land use.”
And the article concluded by noting that, “Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican who will take over the chairmanship of Peterson’s Agriculture Committee if Republicans in November gain the 39 seats they need to control the House, calls Vilsack a ‘nice guy’ drowning in bad ideas. He listens too much to environmentalists and ‘foodies’ who care more about how crops are produced than whether farmers can make a living, Lucas said. Vilsack disagreed.
“‘I might have a slightly different emphasis,’ he said as he ended his fair tour near an exhibit on expanding broadband. ‘But you can’t say I’m not trying.’”
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