Agricultural News
NCBA Watching Senate Appropriations for Agriculture
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 9:35:12 CDTThe Senate Appropriations Committee worked on the Fiscal Year 2009 Ag Appropriations measure and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is watching from their Denver Summer Meeting- paying attention to two issues.
One amendment that NCBA thought might surface on Thursday did not. Colin Woodall of the Washington office of NCBA says his group was very concerned about a "Downer Ban" amendment that was being considered by California Senator Diane Feinstein. Woodall says this measure would have prevented any use at all of any animal that might go down- say with a broken leg. The animal is otherwise healthy but no value will be allowed to be captured from her if this type of amendment turned into law. Woodall also is concerned something like this may be coming through the regulatory process as USDA writes their Downer Ban regs. He adds that NCBA will be watching this issue closely.
One amendment that was offered and passed by a voice vote was offered by Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota. It would mandate that the Secretary of Agriculture would have to "certify" the safety of Argentina's cattle industry regarding FMD before we would permit any beef to come in from that South American country.
NCBA opposes the Johnson amendment as it is now written- as Woodall says it sets a dangerous standard that would be very subjective in dealing with international trade- and if it became law- it would be something that countries like Japan and Korea would point to saying"you don't follow sound science- why should we?"
We have a conversation with Woodall that we picked up here in Denver as we continue our coverage from Denver here at the 2008 Summer Cattle Industry Conference- our coverage a service of Hudson Livestock Supplements. Click on the listen bar to hear this conversation.
Listen to Ron talk with Colin Woodall on two issues from Senate Appropriations work
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