Inside D.C.
Two wins for commons sense
Most have heard the old expression there are two things one should never watch being made — sausage and legislation. This is particularly apropos when it comes to participating in or observing how Congress puts together spending bills, especially in this day and age. The process ain’t pretty. But this week it all came to a happy ending as Congress passed and the President signed the ag/FDA spending bill for the next fiscal year – which, by the way, began October 1.
The FY2012 agriculture spending bill was a heavy lift for the two appropriations subcommittees as it sought to cut from last year’s spending billions of dollars. Everyone and their brother waded into the debate either at subcommittee, full committee, floor or conference level to try and pry a few extra dollars out of the appropriators for this or that favorite program. In the end, it was continually described by those leaders on the floor whose job it was to shepherd it to final approval as “not the best bill in the world, but one that achieves good things.”
A couple of good things this bill achieved is what it didn’t do, or more accurately, what it tried to do, but failed. In the House, two parochial amendments were successfully attached to the bill, both ignoring common sense and the future of agriculture in the U.S.
The first example was an amendment attached to the bill in full committee by Rep. Jim Moran (D, VA) – Alexandria, Virginia, to be exact, not exactly a hotbed of agriculture interests unless you count the ag lobbyists who live in his district. It was Moran’s turn as the darling of the animal rights movement to add language to the bill forbidding USDA to spend any federal dollars to provide inspection to horse processing plants.
Moran made the tired arguments about the horse as a pet, a noble beast, etc., and despite a push by United Horsemen and the Farm Animal Welfare Coalition, which I coordinate, the full committee – without much discussion – okayed the rider in a rush to get the bill completed.
The second amendment was successfully offered on the House floor by Rep. Don Young (R, AK), and the amendment would have forbidden FDA from spending money to complete its safety review of genetically enhanced Atlantic salmon eggs, the first application of a GE food animal, and a client issue on which I work. He called it “Frankenfish,” but the bottom line is Young sees the GE Atlantic salmon as market competition to his state’s wild caught Pacific salmon.
The Senate accepted neither of these amendments, though they were discussed. Why didn’t the Senate fall in line with the House? Because the vaunted effort in the House by collective animal agriculture was successful in the Senate. Strong, logical arguments by a united animal ag against these ill-advised actions carried the day.
On the horse slaughter issue, congressional sentiment has shifted dramatically. No longer do the members automatically think of “My Friend Flicka,” but they considered the economic value of the horse to the owner, the intrusion into slaughter issues for reasons other than food safety, the fact that since U.S. horse slaughter plants closed, the number of abandoned and neglected horses now exceeds 100,000 animals, and they finally figured out that while animal rightists blithely pronounce “euthanasia is an option” for an unwanted horse, USDA inspector oversight of professional stunning is far preferable to starvation and neglect.
On GE salmon, animal agriculture opposed the amendment – taking no position on whether the fish eggs should be approved or not – because the amendment was an unprecedented attempt to politicize FDA’s science-based approval process. Dr. Calestous Juma, professor at the Kennedy School at Harvard University and a great supporter of biotechnology as one of the answers to African hunger and food self-sufficiency, said it best during a House Agriculture Committee hearing on biotech’s contribution to agriculture at which he testified shortly after the House appropriations floor debate:
“I understand this House passed an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would effectively prevent the Food & Drug Administration from completing its safety assessment of the first food fish that makes use of (bio)technology. It is not this particular fish that is at stake. It is the principle behind the amendment and its wider ramifications. It sends the message to the rest of the world that the science-based regulatory oversight as embodied in the FDA review process is subject to political intervention. Furthermore, it signals to the world that the United States may cede its leadership position in the agricultural use of biotechnology. I believe it is imperative the United States stay the course it has set in not letting politics interfere with its science-based regulatory system that is truly the envy of the world.”
Both of these amendments were stripped out of the final conference report by the House and Senate members who reconciled the two versions of the legislation.
It’s these all-too-rare demonstrations of common sense and rationale, non-partisan thinking that give me hope for the institution. They should be the rule, not the exception.
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The AQHA, JC, ApHA, APHA, etc., are not responsible for the excess of horses. All the backyard “pretty pony” breeders are the contribution to this problem. That’s just like saying corporations contracting with farmers to produce product for them, Like McCormick, Del Monte, Heinz, Con Argi, etc., are the reason for herbacides & insecticides poisoning the water table, when these companies are so regulated & monitored by oversight, the true culprits are the urban yard owners, who have no regulations & use these products at 1,000s of times the levels of these companies & their growers. My bank accout tells me you aren’t bailing out squawt, but what you ARE doing is listening to a lot of AR propaganda.
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Horses are not livestock, nor should they be treated like such. Methods used to slaughter cows are not suitable for horses which are a flight animal and can result in needless suffering. Also, nearly every vaccine and medication given to US horses is labelled “not for horses intended for human consumption”. Under the EU guidelines, nearly 99% of US horses are not eligible to be sold for human consumption because of drugs and vaccines in their meat.What we need is not slaughter, what we need is to treat the horse overpopulation just like the dog and cat problem. We need access to affordable humane euthanasia. We need to make it easy to “dispose” of the unwanted, unsound and excess horses. We also need ALL breeders to be accountable for their foals. It’s not just the backyard breeder with a few mares and a stud, it’s the racing industry that produces thousands of horses that will never race, it’s the breeder that breeds 100 foals to get that good one. We need better alternatives than slaughter until the horse population is brought into line
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u will never convice me that those usda inspectors can inspect each horse and be able to tell if they have never used any kind of carcinogenic drugs, i don’t even buy canned dog food anymore , let alone want to eat horsemeat for myself and family. then u want un tax payers to foot the 5million bill for some foreign owned plants in this counrty? are u nuts? i don’t want my tax dollars to kill innocent horses! where do i sign up for not wanting to pay taxes anymore? u waste so much money ,then u cut from much needed help in ss and medicare, etc. and waste it on slaughter horses which are barbaric! i have seen video’s of such places and no horse should have to go thru that process! alot of times horse is still alive when they are dismembered!!! if only u would put a stop to overbreeding u could control the surplus of about 100.000 horses every year! that would not take to long to reach! i think the money should be used for the poor people who can’t afford to have their horse euthanasisd if they can’t afford it. that idea i would support. but not slaughter! to many nice , young, ridable, ones get sent to slaughter not just old ,sick ones! so many from auction go straight to canada for slaughter, if only the owner knew ahead of time he might have changed his mind. i know i will never send mine to slaughter. no way. humane euthanasia is the right thing to do! stop wasting money on what the american people are against! slaughter is wrong! watch a video if u dare!only the heartless people will enjoy it!!
How much did the AQHA pay you to write this? Why should the American taxpayer have to bail out the horse breeding industry to the tune of $5M yearly because the industry doesn’t have to respond to decreased market demands and wants horse slaughter legalized so it can dispose of its excess? When people stop buying houses, builders stop building houses. When cars sales slump, production lines slow. Why should American taxpayers bail out yet another industry?