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A publication of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture SPECIALTY CROPS LEGISLATION INTRODUCED FDA ISSUES NEW RULES TO ENHANCE FOOD SECURITY USDA BEGINS PAYMENTS FOR CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM ENVIRONMENT & PESTICIDE BRIEFS State News--TAIWAN OFFICIALS SIGN TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH NEBRASKA State News--MISSOURI STATE FAIR HONORS LOWELL MOHLER Past Issues
What's New on the NASDA Website
Committee Reports and Policy Amendments from NASDA 2003 The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security (AgJOBS) Act of 2003 Committee Agendas, Policy Amendments, Etc., for NASDA 2003 (Members' Only)
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U.S. Representative Doug Ose (R-Calif.) and U.S. Representative Cal Dooley (D-Calif.) introduced legislation last week that will significantly enhance the specialty crops industry across the nation. The legislation is designed to aid farmers and growers nationwide and affect all areas of fruit, vegetable, nut, and horticulture production. "A secure domestic food supply is a national security imperative," said Ose, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. "A competitive specialty crop industry is a necessity for the production of abundant and affordable food supply." "This legislation represents a comprehensive effort to make specialty crops, which are so important to California farmers, more competitive in the U.S. and in foreign markets," Dooley said. Currently, the bill has 22 cosponsors representing 10 states and Puerto Rico. H.R. 3242, "The Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2003," provides funding in the form of block grants for specialty crops from the federal government, distributed to the individual state's departments of agriculture. The block grant provisions are designed to improve efficiency for specialty crop growers and enhance the long-term competitive characteristics within the specialty crop industry throughout the world marketplace. Those eligible for the grants include projects for research and development, marketing programs, and increased production technology to maintain a competitive specialty crop industry. The legislation provides for much-needed increases in marketing and promotion programs and strengthens fair trading practices within USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. The bill also calls for trade reforms that will allow specialty crop producers to effectively compete in a global marketplace often heavily subsidized for foreign producers. Additionally, the bill encourages greater conservation efforts from farmers and specialty crops producers through enhancements of sustainability practices. The House Agriculture Committee is expected to hold a hearing this month on the legislation. The text of the bill and a summary can be found on NASDA's website. NASDA staunchly supports funding for a Specialty Crops Block Grant Program. The original Specialty Crops Block Grant Program was part of the emergency farm assistance package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in August 2001. The program provided approximately $159 million for specialty crop production assistance and funds were distributed through state grants. Specialty crop producers from across the country have benefitted from these funds. (Contacts: Jennifer Yezak Molen and Tad Bell) FDA ISSUES NEW RULES TO ENHANCE FOOD SECURITY Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson this week announced the issuance of two Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations that are designed to bolster the safety and security of America's food supply. The rules implement the imported food shipment and facility registration provisions of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The first regulation requires food importers to provide the FDA with advance notice of human and animal food shipments imported or offered for import on or after December 12, 2003. This will allow FDA to know, in advance, when specific food shipments will be arriving at U.S. ports of entry and what those shipments will contain. According to the agency, this advance information will allow the FDA, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to more effectively target inspections and ensure the safety of imported foods. The FDA expects to receive about 25,000 notifications about incoming shipments each day. The second regulation requires domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the U.S. to register with the agency by December 12, 2003. As a result, FDA will have, for the first time, a complete roster of foreign and domestic food facilities. The requirements will enable the FDA to quickly identify and locate affected food processors and other establishments in the event of deliberate or accidental contamination of food. The FDA expects about 420,000 facilities to register under this requirement. Except for specific exemptions, the registration requirements apply to all facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food regulated by FDA, including animal feed, dietary supplements, infant formula, beverages (including alcoholic beverages) and food additives. Registration would not be required for private residences of individuals; certain food transport vehicles; facilities that manufacture food contact substances and pesticides; farms; restaurants; other retail food establishments; nonprofit food establishments in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer; non-processing fishing vessels; and facilities (such as meat and poultry slaughterhouses) that are regulated exclusively by the USDA. Also exempt are foreign facilities if the food from the facility is to undergo further processing or packaging by another facility before it is exported to the U.S. In the coming weeks, FDA will be holding educational outreach meetings to inform the public about the new rules. Copies of the rules and fact sheets are available on the FDA website at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fsbtact.html. (Contact: Charlie Ingram) USDA BEGINS PAYMENTS FOR CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has announced that USDA will begin issuing $1.6 billion in annual Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments to producers. CRP is USDA's premier program for protecting fragile natural resources and enhancing the environment. Under the program, producers voluntarily retire environmentally sensitive cropland for ten to fifteen years. Land to be enrolled must either be highly erodible, contribute to a serious water quality problem, provide important wildlife habitat, or provide substantial environmental benefits if devoted to certain specific conservation uses. This year, producers holding 619,493 contracts on 373,033 farms will receive an average of $4,354 per farm or $47.62 per acre. The number of contracts is higher than the number of farms because producers may have multiple contracts on a single farm. Other CRP payments, including reimbursement of 50 percent of expenses for establishing cover and incentive payments for enrolling eligible conservation practices, are made throughout the year. USDA's announcement does not include payments for two million acres enrolled under the most recent CRP general sign-up, which was held from May 5 to June 13, 2003. Rental payments under this newly enrolled acreage will be issued in October 2004. For more information on CRP, producers should contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office or visit FSA's website at http://www.fsa.usda.gov. (Contact: Charlie Ingram) ENVIRONMENT & PESTICIDE BRIEFS ~~Committee Democrats Block Vote on EPA Nominee~~On October 1, Democratic members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee blocked a vote on the nomination of Utah Governor Mike Leavitt to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The minority members said they were not satisfied with Leavitt's answers to policy questions they had submitted. A few Democratic lawmakers had indicated that they would use the EPA confirmation hearings as a forum to protest the Bush administration's environmental policies. Leavitt, who was nominated by President Bush in July, is the nation's longest serving governor and has strongly supported a market-based approach on environmental issues. The committee has rescheduled the vote for October 15. ~~Spending Bill Includes Money for Forest Firefighting, Pests and Flood Control~~The House and Senate have approved the conference report on the FY04 legislative branch appropriations bill which includes supplemental firefighting money for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The legislation (H.R. 2657) provides $319 million for firefighting. It would also require the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to allocate $20 million to fight an infestation of Mormon crickets in Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. The bill provides $60 million for flood control and coastal emergency activities by the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps); $10 million for a tree assistance program; and $5 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for resource management. ~~Grazing Amendment Approved in Senate~~The Senate recently passed an amendment that will allow automatic five year renewal of grazing permits and leases on federal lands while federal agencies work to complete the required environmental analyses. The amendment was offered by Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) as part of the FY04 Interior Appropriations bill (S. 1391). It would remove the uncertainty that now often surrounds renewal of grazing permits and leases when they expire. In many cases, lengthy environmental analysis can take years to complete. As a result, the ten year permits and leases are renewed for one year at a time, often several times, until those studies are complete. In the meantime, farmers and ranchers can be subject to possible lawsuits to stop the renewal process, and they never know more than a year in advance whether that ground will be available for grazing. ~~Coalition Petitions HUD to Reduce Pesticide Use in Housing~~The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a coalition of environmental, housing, and public health organizations this week filed a petition calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to use safer pest management practices in public housing. The coalition's petition specifically asks HUD to require housing authorities to use Integrated Pest Management and only apply chemicals as a last resort and in limited quantities. The groups said children are particularly at risk from pesticide exposure. Attorneys general from eleven states filed a similar petition with HUD. ~~Agriculture Center Seeks Feedback~~The National Agriculture Compliance Assistance Center (Ag Center), created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with support of USDA, is soliciting input on its website services and other information channels. The Ag Center is a "first stop" for information about environmental requirements that affect the agricultural community. The Ag Center's home page is a gateway to a library of compliance information, as well as up-to-date news about related EPA programs and proposals. Go to http://www.epa.gov/agriculture for the Ag Center's website including the Ag Center User Survey. (Contact: Charlie Ingram) FOOD SAFETY BRIEFS ~~FSIS Adopts New Salmonella Screening System~~USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) now will use the BAX(TM) system to screen for salmonella in raw meat and poultry products in order to increase efficiency and better protect public health. The BAX(TM) system is as sensitive as the current method, but also reduces the reporting time for negative samples by one to two days. FSIS has been using the BAX(TM) system for salmonella in ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and pasteurized egg products since February 2003 and for Listeria since April 2002. ~~FDA Reports High Compliance with Feed Rule~~The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has issued a new update and statistics showing that companies subject to the agency's ruminant feed rule to prevent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States have a nearly 100% compliance rate. According to CVM, of the 1,664 inspected firms handling prohibited materials, six firms, fewer than 1%, had official action taken against them. Only 171 firms were classified as voluntary action indicated (VAI), which means inspectors found conditions of little regulatory significance yet still warranting correction. FDA currently inspects 11,375 firms, only 15% of which are handling prohibited materials. The report is available on the FDA-CVM website at http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/updates/BSEInspec03.htm. (Contact: Charlie Ingram) STATE NEWS TAIWAN OFFICIALS SIGN TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH NEBRASKA The Nebraska Department of Agriculture hosted ten governmental and agricultural industry officials from Taiwan as they visited Nebraska last week to demonstrate their continuing goodwill and willingness to purchase U.S. corn and soybeans. The goal of their visit to the United States was to purchase 520 million bushels of grains. Between January 1, 2004, and December 21, 2005, Taiwan plans to purchase $800 million of soybeans and $1 billion of corn. While visiting Lincoln, they met with Governor Mike Johanns and signed purchase agreements for Nebraska corn and soybeans. Dr. Hsi-huang Chen, chairman of the Taiwan Grains and Feeds Development Foundation and the chair of the agricultural mission, emphasized the importance of agricultural trade between Taiwan and Nebraska. Governor Johanns re-emphasized the importance of agricultural trade and the friendship between the people of Taiwan and Nebraska. In 2002, Nebraska exported approximately $65 million total in goods to Taiwan. Included in the $65 million was $970,000 worth of corn and $16 million worth of meats. The Taiwan delegation spent three days touring various Nebraska agricultural interests. A ceremony held in the Capitol lead to the signing of a joint communiqu‚ between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City and the state of Nebraska. A contract between Taiwan Feed Industry Association and the Columbia Grain International, Inc., was signed and witnessed by Bernie Heir, chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board for the purchase of corn. A soybean contract was signed between the Breakfast Soybean Procurement Association and ADM/Growmark River System, Inc., and witnessed by Steve Wellman, president of the Nebraska Soybean Association. On hand for the signing ceremony on Wednesday was Speaker of Legislature Curt Bromm, Senator Pat Engel, and Secretary of State John Gale. Taiwan's agricultural goodwill mission visited Washington, D.C., before splitting into three delegations visiting Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas. Taiwan has been one of the United States most important agricultural products customers, with 35% of Taiwan's total consumption of agricultural products coming from American farmers. Since 1993, Taiwan has ranked as the 5th largest overseas market for U.S. agricultural products. In 2002, Taiwan imported almost $2 billion in agricultural products. (Contact: Christin Brown, 402/471-6856) MISSOURI STATE FAIR HONORS LOWELL MOHLER Lowell Mohler, long-time Missouri State Fair commissioner and former director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, was honored last week at a special luncheon for his leadership and service to the Missouri State Fair. Chairing his last meeting as a member of the Missouri State Fair Commission marked another milestone in Mohler's distinguished career. Mohler was one of the original commission members appointed by Gov. Mel Carnahan in 1996. He has served as the chairman of the commission since 1997. During the luncheon, Sen. James Mathewson announced that the new building shared by the Missouri State Fair Administration and Missouri Army National Guard would be named Lowell Mohler Assembly Hall. "We truly appreciate all that Lowell has done as the chairman of the Missouri State Fair Commission," said Jerry Divin, Bolivar, newly-elected Missouri State Fair Commission Chairman. "We wish him well in his work on the Department of Conservation Commission. Our loss is truly their gain." Mel Willard, fair director, also praised Mohler. "It has been a pleasure to work with Lowell Mohler," Willard said. "He is a visionary leader, a friend of agriculture and a great supporter of the Missouri State Fair. We will miss him, but we wish him well." In other commission business, Kent Blades was elected the vice-chairman. Each commissioner gave a personal evaluation of the 2003 event. The overall consensus was the 2003 fair was a great success. It was noted that the fair would need to continue to be conscientious with resources, as the state budget projection is still bleak. Although the economy may be showing some signs of recovery, prudence is necessary. (Contact: Kimberly Allen, 660/530-5603) | |