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The American Farm Bureau Federation applauded President Bush for making reform of the nation's immigration laws a key part of his agenda for 2005. The president said during his Feb. 2 State of the Union address that the immigration system is outdated and needs reform.
"Farm Bureau has been calling for immigration reform for several years so that farmers and ranchers can have access to legal, affordable farm workers," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "We thank the president for recognizing the importance of this issue for agriculture, as well as for farm workers and border security."
Stallman also commended Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) for his continued leadership on the issue. Craig is expected shortly to reintroduce his Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security (AgJOBS) bill. The two central provisions in AgJOBS are an adjustment to permanent resident status and the H-2a temporary foreign worker wage rate, which the bill would temporarily freeze.
"We support many of the adjustment provisions in AgJOBS, and the wage freeze is a good start," Stallman said. "We look forward to working with Sen. Craig and others to create a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that incorporates the issues our members strongly support."
AFBF supports an opportunity for some agricultural workers to apply for
permanent resident status, while opposing amnesty for illegal aliens and supporting tougher
border controls. It also supports reforming the "adverse effect wage rate" in the H-2a program
so that farmers are not required to pay workers more than the average prevailing wage for
a particular agricultural occupation in the local region surrounding their farm.
Animal I.D. is web site focus
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the launch of a new Web site to inform stakeholders about the national animal identification system (NAIS). The Web site, available at http://www.usda.gov/nais, is designed to be a one-stop resource to facts about NAIS.
"We hope our stakeholders will visit the site frequently to find out the latest news about the NAIS from a national perspective," said APHIS Administrator W. Ron DeHaven. "It will be updated regularly as new information becomes available."
In addition to providing national news, the site provides contact information for state and tribal animal health authorities. The states and tribes are responsible for providing each premises under their purview with a nationally unique identification number—the starting point of the NAIS. All states should be able to assign nationally unique premises identification numbers to locations where animals are managed or held by mid-2005.
Weevil eradication now nationwide
With the successful passage of a referendum of cotton growers in the Northern Blacklands zone, the entire state of Texas and the entire U.S. is now involved and active in boll weevil eradication, according to Roger Haldenby, Plains Cotton Growers, Inc.
The measure passed with 84.7 percent of the ballots cast being in favor of the proposal to establish a boll weevil eradication zone for the Northern Blacklands.
Haldenby reported that 85.71 percent of those voting favored setting an assessment of $13.25 per cotton land acre.
Steven Beakley was elected as the grower to represent the zone on the board of directors of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation.
A map showing the extent of the Northern Blacklands Zone can be viewed at www.txbollweevil.org/Zones/Zones.htm.
BSE transfer to humans questioned
At the same time a French scientific study suggested that a significant species barrier exists to prevent the transfer of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to humans, other scientists were reportedly telling a panel of U.S. meat industry officials to further restrict the use of "specified risk materials," or eliminate their use in such products as pet foods.
The French study says a person would have to eat at least 3.3 pounds of infected neural tissue to be at risk of developing variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
The study reported that infectivity transfer from cattle to humans could be seven to 20 times lower than cattle-to-cattle transmission through ingestion of the BSE agent.
Persons expressing controversial views to the meat industry contend that having risk materials used in foods for nonruminant animals means food designated for other animals could still be mixed in with ruminant animal feeds.
Notable Quotables
"The average American earns enough income to pay for all the food consumed in one year in only 37 calendar days. Typically, consumers spend just 10 percent of their disposable annual income on food. This contribution to the health and prosperity of our nation is made possible through the efficient efforts by America's farmers and ranchers, who work hard every day to provide a safe, abundant and affordable food supply. They help to feed people around the world in an environmentally sustainable way."
—Excerpt from a proclamation supporting Food Check-Out Day on Feb. 7 from Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, read at a news conference by American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman.
