Ranking Member Continues to Monitor Administration Actions on USDA Catfish Inspection Program
BELZONI, Miss. – U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today met with agriculture and community leaders here to listen to their views and concerns regarding implementation of the 2014 farm bill, including catfish inspections and the new agricultural production safety net programs.
Cochran, ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he was interested in hearing first-hand how well the U.S. Department of Agriculture is rolling out the many reforms and improvements built in the 2014 farm bill, a law enacted in February that sets federal farm policies for the next five years.
“In areas like the Mississippi Delta whose economies are agriculture-based, it is the local farmers and businesses who can best say whether a program is working. They’ll deal with the reforms in the 2014 farm bill on a day-to-day basis, which makes their input important,” Cochran said.
“The Department of Agriculture has an important job to carry out the reforms and improvements built into the farm bill. It’s also important for our farmers, ranchers and agriculture businesses to monitor that process to ensure that federal policies help, not hinder, their work to produce food and fiber for Americans and people around the world,” he said.
With major reforms to agriculture, conservation and nutrition policies, the Agriculture Act of 2014 will save taxpayers nearly $17 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The farm bill baseline was also trimmed by $6 billion from sequestration, resulting in an overall savings of $23 billion.
Cochran continues to work with the administration to ensure full implementation of a USDA catfish inspection program to replace an insufficient Food and Drug Administration inspection process. The new farm bill clarified aspects of the inspection program first authorized in 2008 but never implemented. The 2014 law more clearly spells out that foreign imported catfish must undergo the same food safety requirements as domestically-produced catfish.
“The U.S. catfish industry has taken hits from unfair foreign competition that, up to now, has not had to meet the stricter standards that catfish farmers in Mississippi and other states are held to. For the sake of food safety and fairness, I think they should do so,” Cochran said.
The Senator also sought feedback today from Delta farmers on the risk management and safety net programs in the 2014 farm bill.
“The risk management and safety net programs in the farm bill represent some of the most significant recent changes in agriculture policy. These programs should support producers who incur losses from natural disasters or other acts, such as severe market fluctuations, which are out of their control,” said Cochran, who insisted that the new risk management policies recognize the regional differences and priorities of U.S. agriculture production.
The USDA is attempting to have the bill’s Producer Choice provisions available for enrollment this fall. This initiative offers producers options for managing their risks through counter-cyclical risk management tools based on price or revenue protection (Price Loss Coverage or Agriculture Risk Coverage).
Meanwhile, the USDA is trying to implement Crop Insurance reforms by 2015. These reforms would create a stacked income protection program (STAX) for producers of upland cotton and a Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) to protect farmers from revenue losses.
LINKS:
• USDA 2014 Farm Bill Implementation: http://1.usa.gov/1mgoVrN
• Cochran on Catfish Inspection: http://1.usa.gov/1fRRIW4
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