Agriculture organizations are hard at work making sure Congress has a handle on what is going to be essential for the industry in the next Farm Bill.
For pork, it centers around biosecurity, trade and the environment.
Andrew Bailey is the science and technology counsel for the National Pork Producers Council, the lobbying arm for pork producers. He has his nose to the grindstone with new Congress members as farm policy discussions continue into the new year.
The last Farm Bill was passed in 2018. It doesn’t “expire” like other bills do, but certain things run due after the five-year cycle. Bailey admits that Midterm elections have put the 2023 Farm Bill behind.
“I think we’re hopeful that we can get it done in 2023,” he says. “There is some discussion of, we’ll need a short term extension to wrap things up in 2024. I think we’re a little far out to know one way or another if we’ll need that — hopefully we won’t.”
The NPPC has not been idle in making sure the pork industry’s voice is accounted for. Biosecurity is top of mind as African Swine Fever continues to wreak havoc in other parts of the world. ASF has not come into the U.S.
“For us, a big concern is shoring up and expanding those programs that we got established in the last farm bill,” Bailey explains.
He calls it the “three-legged stool of animal health,” and it encompasses the vaccine bank, the National Animal Health Lab Network funding, and the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program.
“Those programs are really about building capacity domestically to make sure that if a disease were to come here, we’d be able to respond to it rapidly and effectively,” Bailey says.
Other priorities for NPPC in the 2023 Farm Bill include farmer-led conservation, foreign market development and market access programs. Bailey also outlines a plan to develop a type of risk mitigation or insurance policy for pork producers, somewhat resembling Dairy Margin Coverage or crop insurance.
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