WPX Report: NPPC Applauds New US Farm Bill
US - The US National Pork Producers Council claims the 2008 Farm Bill is very good for the US swine industry, ThePigSite senior editor Chris Harris reports from the World Pork Expo in Des Moines Iowa.ThePigSite.com reports from World Pork Expo, Iowa.
Joy Philipi, the co-chair of the NPPC Farm Bill Policy Task Force said the object of three years consultation by the NPPC with the law makers was to ensure the Farm Bill should see the pig meat industry in the US as competitive when it is passed as when the consultation first began.
The NPPC has been in three years consultation over the bill, Ms Philippi said at the expo.
One of the main provisions in the new bill is for a change in the Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labelling law to include four new label categories for meat, including one to address Canadian feeder pigs by allowing flexibility in labelling so that producers and packers can reduce sorting costs. The law was also changed to ease record keeping for verifying an animal's country of origin by allowing the use of existing records, such as normal business records, animal health papers and import or customs documents.
Another provision in the Bill that the NPPC fought for was for a voluntary national trichinae certification programme to certify exported pork as trichinae-free.
The NPPC also called for enhanced funding for research and development including grants to amp the swine genome and research into antibiotic resistance not only through pig meat but also through water and the land via waste products.
Ms Philippi said that the NPPC saw that there were environmental considerations in the bill including funds for an Environmental Quality Incentives Programme to encourage conservation and clauses to enhance the use of manure and renewable biomass for biofuels.
"We wanted to provide incentives for expanding production of advanced biofuels made from agricultural and forestry crops and associated waste materials, including animal manure and livestock and food processing waste," she said.
The NPPC also called for more provisions for market development and changes to clarify the Packers and Stockyard Act.
However, Ms Philippi added that the NPPC made sure that the legislation would not ban packers from owning livestock and it also helped to simplify the rule making and legislation process, making it less costly.