Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned lawmakers Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s decision upholding California’s Proposition 12 could lead to “chaos,” if other states follow suit in imposing their own standards for food products.
During a five-hour hearing of the House Agriculture Committee, Vilsack also defended the administration’s focus assisting small- and medium-scale farmers, and insisted there is “tremendous” demand for Inflation Reduction Act funding, some of which Republicans would like to reallocate to other farm bill priorities.
Proposition 12 banned the practice of confining sows used for producing pork that’s sold in California and also imposed regulations on producers of veal calves and eggs.
“I'm not sure that this Congress is going to be able to pass legislation [to address such laws] with due respect, but I would suggest that if we don't take this issue seriously we're going to have chaos, because there’s nothing to prevent any state from doing what California did,” Vilsack told committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa.
He said the Supreme Court had determined that Prop 12 was constitutional because the law allowed producers to decide whether they wanted to comply with it.
A bill called the Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act would bar a state from regulating farming practices for foods produced in another state. However, the pork industry itself has been divided over the legislation.
Thompson and other GOP colleagues repeatedly accused Vilsack of ignoring the needs of large-scale producers.
“It's important for us to reset the notion that the only option in American agriculture is to get big or get out. It's time for us to do better for our small and mid sized farming operations … that are surviving for the most part by taking a second job,” Vilsack said at one point.
According to the latest Census of Agriculture, released Tuesday, the number of farms in the U.S. fell 7% over five years to about 1.9 million in 2022.
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., reiterated the complaints of farm groups about the formula used for distributing 2022 disaster assistance under the Emergency Relief Program.
The formula sharply reduced payments above $10,000 as a way to pro-rate the aid. Congress provided $3.2 billion for the program, well short of the $10 billion to $12 billion in losses estimated by USDA.
“You put us in a tough spot,” Vilsack told Lucas, noting that Congress only funded about 30% of the estimated need.
Lucas told Vilsack Oklahoma farmers have complained that because of the payment limit, the aid isn’t going to producers with the largest losses. Vilsack said large-scale farmers also benefit from crop insurance, which has no limits on the size of farms that can participate.
Vilsack later told Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., that Congress needs to “adequately and fully fund” disaster assistance and consider finding a way of providing aid that “is less ad hoc.”
Rep. Brad Finstad, R-Minn., blasted Vilsack personally, alleging he had “demonized” large-scale farms while and had presided over multiple years of declining farm income, starting under the Obama administration. “That’s quite the resume,” Finstad said.
"I don't know about you but if collapsing farm incomes, worsening trade deficits, increased regulatory burdens are your version of a better and stronger rural America, I think most farmers including myself would like to find a different path," Finstad said.
Finstad also said Vilsack lacked “appreciation for operations that provide the majority of the food in this country with tight margins and greater risk.”
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Several Republicans and even one Democrat, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan,, complained about the cost of hiring foreign workers using the H-2A program.
Vilsack responded by calling on lawmakers to support the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would reform the program and provide a path to legal status for farmworkers who are in the country illegally. The bill passed the House in two successive Congresses, only to die in the Senate. The current House, now under GOP control, hasn’t taken up the bill.
Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said the bill had “significant issues” unrelated to the H-2A wage rates.
“If there are issues with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act you should fix that and pass it,” Vilsack responded, asserting that the bill would “create stability and predictability” for producers.
On other issues, Vilsack said:
- USDA weighed in with EPA on its proposed new effluent standards for meat processing plants, which says would put some facilities out of business. “We provided information and data to try to bolster the most restrictive option,” Vilsack said.
- It would be pointless for the Biden administration to negotiate new trade agreements, given that Congress hasn’t renewed presidential trade promotion authority, which prevents lawmakers from amending trade deals. “Do you believe you can pass trade promotion authority in this Congress?” he asked Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa. “The reason why not is because people have an attitude about trade that requires us to rebuild people’s trust in trade.”
- USDA could have a vaccine ready for one strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza in about 18 months. But he said there are several other hurdles to overcome, including determining an effective method of administering it to birds, and convincing other countries to accept vaccine usage. “If we vaccinated today we would have a number of trading partners say we are not interested in your chicken.”
- The Biden administration is on track to meet its March 1 deadline for releasing an update of the GREET model that's used to gauge the carbon intensity of biofuels. The model will be used to determine the eligibility of feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel.
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