U.S. SENATE RELEASES FARM BILL LANGUAGE

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry this week released its version of the 2018 Farm Bill, which includes language establishing a vaccine bank to deal with an outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). Currently, the United States does not have access to enough FMD vaccine to handle more than a small, localized outbreak. According to Iowa State University economists, an FMD outbreak in the United States, which would prompt countries to close their markets to U.S. meat exports, would cost the beef and pork industries a combined $128 billion over 10 years if farmers weren’t able to combat the disease through vaccination. The committee is expected to mark up the bill June 13, while the full House is expected to vote on its version of the bill, which also includes FMD language, June 22. NPPC continues to urge lawmakers to provide funding of $150 million for the vaccine bank, $70 million for state block grants and $30 million for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) for each of the five years of the Farm Bill.