Beef Buzz News
Vilsack Makes it Clear During His Senate Ag Committee Confirmation Hearing he Wants More Cattle Market Transparency
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 08:56:03 CST
During his Senate Agriculture Committee confirmation hearing for USDA Secretary earlier this week Tom Vilsack made it clear he wants more transparency in the cattle markets.
On today’s Beef Buzz we digest a few of his comments about market transparency and dive into what Tom Vilsack version 2.0 as USDA chief will look like.
Vilsack, who was USDA chief during the Obama Administration, opened the hearing by quoting Robert Kennedy about “Why Not Moments” in agriculture.
He highlighted four key “why not” moments: climate change, food security and nutrition insecurity, competitive markets and USDA fair treatment.
We are in a why not moment in terms of the openness and competitiveness of our livestock markets, Vilsack said.
The reality is we lack openness, fairness and competitiveness and resiliency as the Covid-19 crisis has shown, Vilsack said.
We can strengthen the rules and laws to support more fairness, he said.
During the Q & A session he responded to a request from Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) to do more to improve market competitiveness.
We need to strengthen the laws but that is not enough as we need alternative processing facilities, Vilsack said.
We must have a more resilient food system, he said.
I would also want to work closely with the Justice department to determine if they see more reasons for additional actions on their behalf, Vilsack said.
There are a multitude of steps we can take to help our producers have greater confidence in the markets, Vilsack added.
In responding to a query from Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) about country of origin labeling Vilsack assured the Senator he would be happy to work on anything that allow us to advance country of origin labeling.
Vilsack said we need to continue building on the vaccine bank for animals established in the 2018 farm bill.
We need to make sure we are in a position to quickly respond to a disease outbreak, Vilsack said.
If we don’t respond quickly there is the risk to markets, animals and humans, he said.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear more comments from USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack during his Senate Ag Committee confirmation hearing earlier this week.
The Beef buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
Ron Hays Beef Buzzes With Ag. Sec. Tom Vilsack
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