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Legislative Updates

FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE
By Judith McGeary, Esq.

AGRIBUSINESS ADMITS THAT THE foot and mouth disease (FMD) case diagnosed
FOOD SYSTEM IS BROKEN. . . in the United States.
BUT NOT WHY To explain the background: FMD is a
In late April, Tyson Foods took out full- disease that affects cloven-hooved ruminants
page advertisements in The Washington Post (cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, etc.). It is not trans-
and The New York Times warning that the missible to humans. But because it is said to
country’s food supply chain is “breaking” amid be highly contagious and can severely affect
continued lockdowns aimed at slowing down the livestock production, any country that has a
coronavirus pandemic. diagnosed case faces extreme export restric-
The advertisement consisted of a letter from tions—which in turn damages the profits of
John Tyson, chairman of the board. He warned the large companies that export livestock and
that consumers would face shortages at the meat. Governments have thus often adopted
grocery stores, while “farmers across the na- draconian policies to stop its spread and try to
tion simply will not have anywhere to sell their eradicate the disease. One of the first tools is a
livestock to be processed, when they could have “stop movement order,” which would halt all
fed the nation. transportation of livestock in the country, and
“Millions of animals—chickens, pigs and which was the topic of this conference.
cattle—will be depopulated because of the clo- The speaker for the swine industry had pre-
sure of our processing facilities,” Tyson wrote. pared an extensive presentation, which included
“The food supply chain is breaking.” the following claim: If a stop-movement order
All of which is true, but misleading. A more is put in place, within a few days there will be
accurate assessment is that the system is func- millions of dead and dying hogs in this country.
tioning exactly as it was designed to by Tyson I was baffled at these words. We were discuss-
and the other mega-corporations that effectively ing a hypothetical scenario in which there was Judith McGeary
is the Austin, Texas,
control the market through an oligopoly system. only a single confirmed case of foot and mouth chapter leader, an
(This articles goes to print just after executives disease in this country, and the government attorney and
from two other major poultry companies were stopped animal movements to prevent its spread. small farmer, and the
indicted for price fixing.) Was he discussing what would happen if FMD executive director of
the Farm and Ranch
What has happened with our food supply, had spread to the major hog-raising facilities? Freedom Alliance.
in particular our meat supply, during the Co- As he continued speaking, it became clear that She has a B.S. in
vid-19 pandemic was not only predictable, but he wasn’t saying that the animals would die from biology from
predicted. These predictions came not only from FMD. He was explaining that the animals live Stanford University
and a J.D. from the
small-farm advocates like myself, but from the under crowded conditions and have been bred, University of Texas
large industry players themselves. fed and drugged so as to maximize their weight at Austin. She and
Almost ten years ago, I attended a two-day gain, that if they could not be moved out of the her husband
conference hosted by the USDA that brought facilities at exactly the right time, the over- run a small
grass-based farm
together federal animal health officials, state crowding and physiological stress would start with sheep, cattle,
animal health officials and major industry orga- killing them. (He didn’t use those exact words, horses and poultry.
nizations; I was able to attend because of my role of course, but he was very clear about the issues.) For more
on the USDA Advisory Committee on Animal When we started breakout group discus- information, go to
farmandranch
Health. The topic of the event was how to deal sions, I raised what I thought was the obvious freedom.org or
with “stop movement orders” if there were a question: If the system is so fragile, shouldn’t call (254) 697-2661.

SUMMER 2020 Wise Traditions 95