Making food safety, animal health a national priority

Sen. John Boozman P oultry is the largest agricultural industry in Arkansas, representing almost 40 percent of production and accounting for one in four agriculture jobs in the state.

Over half of the nearly 38,000 farms in Arkansas raise cattle.

Arkansas hog producers raise more than 1.8 million pigs annually.

Whether its broilers, turkeys, cattle, dairy, or hogs, Arkansas producers have long prioritized animal health and have a strong track record of preventing and responding to emerging animal disease threats, such as avian influenza.

As the head Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, I am committed to ensuring America continues to lead the way in responding to current and future animal diseases.

It is critical that we in Congress put the right tools in place to bolster animal health programs. We have a golden opportunity to do that with the next farm bill.

We must meet this moment and modernize the risk management tools our farmers and ranchers rely upon and key programs that support producers facing weather and animal disease challenges.

For livestock producers, animal disease outbreaks are among the biggest risks they face.

That is why robust investments in animal health programs are included in the farm bill framework my Senate Republican colleagues and I have put forward.

Our framework doubles funding for the “threelegged stool” programs the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers to combat animal disease outbreaks. We will help ensure USDA’s disease response can be successful by supporting our animal health labs, establishing cooperative agreements with states and other partners and investing in our vaccine bank.

We also aim to improve assistance for poultry growers impacted by avian influenza and ensure producers’ ability to export their products when there is not an animal health concern.

I remain confident that both the House and Senate can come together to pass a strong farm bill that prioritizes these investments in animal health programs.

While we work toward accomplishing that goal, we cannot ignore the ongoing avian influenza outbreak we are seeing in both dairy cattle and poultry.

While I am encouraged by the careful response, we need to ensure the administration continues to rely on the animal health expertise of USDA to lead the efforts and that the agency leans heavily on our state agriculture commissioners and veterinarians, who have boots-on-the-ground experience working with producers.

It is of upmost importance that we do not penalize producers who are dealing with an outbreak on their operation. Rather, we must seek to incentivize them to implement strong biosecurity measures on the front end and, when impacted, work with experts and veterinarians to address the outbreak.

Finally, we must ensure the administration proactively engages with our trading partners to minimize the impact on exports. Too often our trading partners use animal diseases as a scapegoat for blocking U.S. goods at their shores. We must ensure unfair trade barriers are not put in place against American meat, poultry and dairy products and hold our trading partners accountable for science-based trade policies.

My colleagues and I agree that a long-term plan for responding to avian influenza in both poultry and dairy cattle must be established and communicated by the administration.

Congress stands ready to help support that effort and continue to ensure our nation leads the way in animal health innovation, surveillance and response, and science-based policy to deal with emerging animal disease threats.