Agricultural News
NCBA Helps Convince Senate Ag Committee Chair Stabenow to Pull Cage Agreement From Her Farm Bill Mark
Tue, 07 May 2013 03:56:08 CDT
The farm bill markup is planned for May, with the Senate Ag Committee expected to begin as early as the latter part of this week. Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says a "short term victory" has been won in discussions with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow as she gets the process rolling, as the Michigan Senator has apparently pulled from her Chairman's Mark language that would have codified the HSUS- UEP cage agreement. In recent days, her staff had signaled that it would be a part of her initial draft of the 2013 five year Farm Bill.
"There is a huge concern as to whether or not she will include the language on the HSUS-United Egg Producers agreement in regards to the size of laying cages. We understand it was in an initial draft. We started having meetings with her staff immediately and really ramped up some of our other friends in animal agriculture to express our concern about it. And I think we have put enough pressure on her that she is going to remove that. So we see that as a short-term victory, but we still don't know if one of the other Senators will bring that up as an amendment either during the markup later this week or when the bill goes to the floor. So, it's still very much a real threat to all of us in livestock production."
Woodall says this language should be of great concern to cattle producers.
"Almost two years ago the Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers got together and decided that they were going to dictate the size of laying cages to be used in the egg industry. Now, on the surface, if that's something that United Egg Producers and HSUS wanted to agree to, that's not a problem. Our problem is the way they intended to enforce that. Basically, they wanted Congress to pass a law that would mandate the use of these cages.
"A lot of people questioned why NCBA, the Pork Producers, and other groups in livestock have been involved and it has to do with precedents. If we allow this agreement to move forward and be passed into law, it will actually be the first time that Congress has ever dictated a production practice.
Now, we have all sorts of rules and regulations we have to deal with each and every day in agriculture, but, to date, Congress has never told us how to lay that egg or produce that calf. That would change the dynamic. And, more importantly, it would set the precedent and give HSUS the toehold to then come after all the rest of us in agriculture.
"We've seen all the work they've done on the gestation crates in the pork industry. We know what they want to do to the veal industry and they will eventually make their way down to the cattle industry, so we've got to stop them here, and that's what we're trying to do."
He said they are getting indications that this provision will not be in the chairman's markup. "Like I said, that's a good short-term victory, but there are still a lot of people involved in this and you can never underestimate how powerful HSUS is when they really have their eye on the prize. So, we do think that there is a possibility that we could see an amendment offered either during the markup later this week or also during the floor consideration by the Senate sometime later this month."
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