Trade has been a focal point of news coverage for months as the Trump administration reshapes U.S. policy. These policy changes are affecting many industries, especially U.S. agriculture.
But lost in the attention on trade are other significant threats to farmers that are worsening while a House-Senate conference committee grapples over provisions of the next farm bill. That bill must be passed before the 2014 Farm Bill expires Sept. 30.
These looming threats put the livelihoods of America’s farmers in danger, with a definite ripple effect on prices at the supermarket checkout. Facing their lowest income in 15 years, pig farmers need immediate help on three issues to sustain a farm sector that employs more than 550,000 Americans and generates nearly $24 billion in personal income in rural America.
As the owner of a pig farm, I know first-hand the importance of these issues. As a former member of Congress and secretary of agriculture, I also understand where the solutions lie.
The first issue is visa reform. Pig farmers and pork processing plants now suffer from a serious labor shortage and need a reliable workforce to continue providing the highest standards of animal care and a steady, affordable, and safe supply of pork for American consumers. Much of this dedicated workforce can be drawn from foreign labor, but the current visa system is woefully ineffective.
[Also read: USDA announces $6 billion bailout for farmers caught in trade war]
Two pieces of pending legislation can provide immediate relief if passed by Congress. The first is the Newhouse-Cuellar Amendment adopted by the House Appropriations Committee. This amendment, which must be passed as part of the fiscal 2019 agricultural spending bill, allows farmers to use the existing H-2A visa program year-round instead of for only seasonal labor. The second is the “AG and Legal Workforce Act” (H.R. 6417), which would create a new year-round agricultural guest worker visa, H-2C, and would require all U.S. employers to use the federal E-Verify program.
The second challenge facing pig farmers is the inability to adequately address an outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease. If an FMD outbreak happened today, the U.S. could only handle a very small, localized outbreak. Livestock farmers likely wouldn’t receive a vaccine for weeks for a small outbreak and months for a large outbreak. All export markets to U.S. meat would close immediately and annual job losses are estimated at 58,000 for direct employment and 154,000 in total employment. The costs to farmers and consumers would be astronomical. Think bird flu, but worse.
To solve this, Congress can authorize in the farm bill mandatory annual funding to help prevent a potential national security disaster. Farmers estimate they need $150 million for an FMD vaccine bank, $30 million for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network to do disease diagnostics, and $70 million for state animal health agencies to prepare for a foreign animal-disease emergency. This funding is even more critical now, given the recent outbreak of African Swine Fever in China that’s quickly spreading.
Lastly, lab-produced cultured protein should face the same regulations as real meat. Real meat producers are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Services, and are subject to rigorous and continuous inspections. However, supporters of cultured protein are seeking to avoid these safeguards and are pushing for the Food and Drug Administration to have regulatory authority. This puts consumers at risk and decreases the integrity of real pork and other meat products.
Rather than the FDA grabbing regulatory control over laboratory-produced cultured protein products, the proper regulatory body is the FSIS, where producers will be required to comply with the same regulatory standards as naturally produced meat and poultry products.
These common-sense solutions are all endorsed by the National Pork Producers Council as ways Congress can soften the impact on rural America of the administration’s efforts to realign global trade policy.
John R. Block is a pig farmer, a former congressman from Illinois, and former secretary of agriculture under President Ronald Reagan. He joined Americans for Farmers & Families to advocate for free trade policies.
