New Zealand Sea Exports of Livestock and NPPC Calls for Halt to Prop 12
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**Farmers in the Klamath Basin expect to receive a water allocation from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and all indications point to extreme shortage.
Drought and regulations protecting fish species mean farmers may have little or no water from the federal Klamath Project.
A leading farmer in the basin says this second dry year, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, will have a “compounding effect” that will hit the community hard.
**New Zealand will stop exporting livestock by sea following a transition period of up to two years, citing animal welfare concerns, a decision that will affect major trading partners like Australia and China.
The ban was welcomed by animal welfare groups, but caught the farming industry by surprise.
According to www.dairyherd.com, New Zealand’s primary exports revenue has averaged around $42.32 million a year from 2015 to 2019. New Zealand exported 113,285 cattle by sea last year.
www.dairyherd.com/news/exports/new-zealand-end-livestock-exports-due-animal-welfare-concerns?mkt
**The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation gave oral arguments last week before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to strike down California’s Proposition 12 as unconstitutional.
Prop 12, set to begin implementation in January of next year, imposes arbitrary animal housing standards that reach outside of California's borders to farms across the country, and bans the sale of pork that doesn’t meet those standards.