OSHA Fall Out & Ractopamine Rukus

OSHA Fall Out & Ractopamine Rukus plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Forty-three Senators have now signed a letter to Labor Secretary Tom Perez asking that OSHA end enforcement of rules dealing with grain storage on small farms. The 43 Senators ask Perez to stop OSHA inspectors from enforcing a very narrow interpretation of law dating to 1976 - where Congress banned OSHA action on small farms. One Nebraska farm was fined 130-thousand dollars for alleged grain storage violations. American Farm Bureau Executive Director Dale Moore.

MOORE: I don't know a farming enterprise out there of any size that a fine of $130-thousand dollars plus or $10-thousand dollars plus or even a thousand dollars, that all has an impact on the bottom line of that farming operation. In the particular example that Senator Johanns raised that $130-thousand dollars could well put that farming enterprise out of business.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul says Russia's ban on U.S. pork and beef products due to fears about ractopamine - which was imposed in February - has cost the U.S. 5 to 6-billion dollars since that time. McFaul says he will personally continue to work with Russia to get Moscow to remove this ban on U.S. meat imports. Close to two-dozen countries have approved ractopamine as safe to use - but several other countries - including the European Union, China and Taiwan - have joined Russia on banning the use of ractopamine.

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

The concern over antibiotic use in farm animals has reached a fevered pitch and earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration asked pharmaceutical makers to voluntarily change the labels on their antibiotics. The FDA hopes this voluntary labeling policy will reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock. But many consumer advocates and other critics of the measure say that it is too little too late and that it will do very little to really decrease what they perceive as the over-use of antibiotics in livestock. On the other side of the argument some health and economic experts are proposing an alternative way to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock in the form of a high use-fee; likening it to the royalties paid by the logging industry and big oil. The fact remains that most of antibiotics used on farms are for helping sick animals, not for padding a farmer's pocket. The report that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. is given to livestock shouldn't come as such a surprise when considering that there are far more farm animals in the nation than there are people. That's why many veterinarians are concerned that blanket antibiotic bashing and possible banning will do more harm than good for their patients.

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