New Highway Time & Vilsack on GIPSA

New Highway Time & Vilsack on GIPSA

New Highway Time & Vilsack on GIPSA plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

There may be changes ahead for the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration or GIPSA rule. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says different parts of the proposed changes in the so called GIPSA rule are being handled in different ways and are on separate tracks in the process especially competition.

VILSACK: We’re still working on that because it’s really complicated. It’s really, really complicated based on the comments we got, the economic analysis that’s been done, it’s complicated.

Last week the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works voted unanimously in support of S. 1813, the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,” commonly referred to as the highway bill. The act is a two year bill that consolidates existing surface transportation programs and reallocates funding to other transportation programs. Kent Bacus, with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says unfortunately, the bill does not include language to address cattlemen’s immediate concerns with increasing truck weights with an additional axle or to allow agricultural permits for drivers to haul up to 100-thousand pounds.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

At the annual meeting last week of farm broadcasters Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack stated to the group that the Environmental Protection Agency actually has a “growing appreciation” for agriculture. If you believe that I have some swamp land in Florida I’d like to sell you. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit harsh, but history shows us the EPA does not have a good track record of trying to work with the ag industry. The most recent controversy involving the EPA and its “overregulation” in requiring farmers to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits is a good case in point. Vilsack has attempted to lump the NPDES permits into the same category as the earlier feared threat of new EPA dust rules, but this falls flat in that the NPDES permits aren’t just a perceived threat, they’re a reality. He can say all he wants that he “doesn’t think the EPA has any intent on trying to regulate spray drift that may occur as a result of normal application”, but it will come as no surprise to most farmers when that’s exactly what happens. The EPA has proven again and again that the ag industry is a big, and favorite target.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

Previous ReportOne Step Closer & More for Thanksgiving Meal
Next ReportVilsack In Vietnam & Organic Fraud