Current Cattle Markets Daily Headlines for Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Mackenzie Johnston
Newspapers and Laptop. Different Concepts for News - Network or Traditional Tabloid Journals. Data Sources - Electronic Screen of Computer or Paper Pages of Magazines, Internet or Papers
USDA boss’s home state got most trade aid per farmer, GAO finds
Last year, farmers in Secretary Perdue’s home state of Georgia received the highest average payments under President Trump’s $28 billion trade aid program, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday.
According to Senate Democrats, farms in the south received higher average payments and a large portion of aid went to bigger famers instead of family farms.
A spokesperson for the USDA replied to the allegations by stating that aid payments were “based on trade damage, not based on region or farm size.”
Georgia led the nation with payments of $42,545 per farmer versus a national average of $16,507 per farmer and $119 per acre versus a national average of $57 per acre in Trump’s trade aid program, according to the GAO.
Eight of the nine states with the highest payments per acre were located in the South.
A study conducted by Kansas State University economists published in May discovered that cotton farmers were considerably overpaid under last year’s trade aid program.
The study found that the 2019 payout for cotton farmers was 33 times the estimated financial impact of tariff disputes with China and other nations.
Georgia is the second largest producer of Cotton after Texas.
The GAO reported the top 25 farms in the program received an average of $1.5 million per farm in trade aid last year.
The USDA felt that the loftier portion given to larger operations was justified because large farmers account for 10 percent of all farms, they operate 52 percent of total farmland and generate 79 percent of the total value of production.
Ranch group urges USDA to reject Zoetis’ request to manufacture FMD vaccine on the mainland
R-CALF USA has filed comments with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) claiming that the agency has no authority to approve Zoetis’ request to manufacture a food-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine on the mainland using a modified live FMD virus unless Congress first changes the law prohibiting the introduction of the live FMD virus into the mainland.
Zoetis’ petition states that the pharmaceutical company has obtained a permit from APHIS to introduce the live FMD virus into the mainland.
The petition claims that the live FMD virus introduced has been genetically modified to render it incapable of causing FMD infection in livestock.
R-CALF maintains that this doesn’t matter because Congress has been clear that the live FMD virus can only be introduced for three specific purposes and manufacturing of a vaccine is not one of them.
According to R-CALF, the petition itself lacks any citation or reference to any scientific study that substantiates Zoetis’ and APHIS’ claim that the modified live FMD virus is incapable of causing infection in livestock and wildlife.
The ranch group feels that APHIS should voluntarily withdraw its petition on the grounds that it seeks comments for an unlawful act and because it is essentially inadequate for purposes of analyzing the possible risk the petition potentially harbors for the U.S. live cattle industry.
