FEED - February 2009
Contents
1. Taxpayer funds support CAFOs
2. Corn engineered for ethanol likely to contaminate food supply
3. New chance to press USDA for pharma crop ban
4. "Naturally raised" and "natural" standards for meat will create confusion
5. Dangerous MRSA bacterium found in U.S. pigs
1. Taxpayer funds support CAFOs
A federal program gave at least $35 million a year to large hog and dairy CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) between 2003 and 2007, according to a new report. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) was originally designed to protect the environment by helping farmers pay for erosion control, nutrient management, and other conservation activities. When this program was founded, CAFOs were excluded from receiving EQIP funds, but in 2002 Congress made these funds available to industrial operations and raised the cap on payments. Since then, the program has helped prop up at least 1,000 industrial hog and dairy operations by offsetting some of their costs for massive manure disposal. The CAFOs grabbed a large share of the funds available and used them for some practices that can be environmentally harmful, such as expanding waste lagoons, which can pollute air and water supplies. Read the report (pdf), which adds to findings about taxpayer subsidies for CAFOs detailed in UCS's report CAFOs Uncovered (pdf) and summarized in The Hidden Costs of CAFOs (pdf).
2. Corn engineered for ethanol likely to contaminate food supply
Even while it ponders major changes to its oversight of genetically engineered (GE) crops (see story below), the USDA is poised to approve the first GE food crop commercialized for industrial biofuel production. UCS has long called on the USDA to ban outdoor uses of engineered food crops, such as corn or rice, to produce drugs or industrial substances, because of threats to the food supply. Biotechnology giant Syngenta has engineered this industrial GE corn with genes from three deep-sea microorganisms to generate a novel protein to facilitate the corn's conversion into ethanol. If approved, the ethanol corn, which is not intended for human consumption, could be grown on millions of acres, in which case it would certainly contaminate the food supply. Corn millers and refiners are concerned that contamination will damage the quality of breakfast cereals, snack foods, and other products and that it will disrupt exports. Read our comments urging the USDA to ban the engineered corn (pdf).
| "If millions of acres of this ethanol corn are planted, the question of contamination is not 'if' but 'when.' The main danger is that people may be allergic to this new protein when it winds up in their food." ~ Jane Rissler, Deputy Director/Senior Scientist |
3. New chance to press USDA for pharma crop ban
Last year, UCS successfully thwarted the USDA's plan to finalize new regulations by the end of the Bush administration that would have weakened oversight of GE crops, including those engineered to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals. Now we have gained a second victory: the department has reopened the comment period on the proposal. Our detailed scientific and policy critique, and the more than 14,000 comments from our members and activists, were instrumental in achieving both victories. UCS will submit another round of comments on the proposal in March, again urging a ban on the outdoor use of engineered "pharma/industrial" food crops. Thanks to all who submitted comments; your letters made the difference. Stay tuned for our action alert to weigh in during the new comment period!
4. "Naturally raised" and "natural" standards for meat will create confusion
Over the objections of thousands of consumers and sustainable agriculture advocates, the USDA has approved a new process-verified label, "naturally raised," that meat producers can apply to use if they follow certain production practices. While UCS supports certain requirements of this label (restrictions on the use of animal by-products, added hormones, and antibiotics), we are dismayed that the USDA refused to address the central flaw with this proposal. Specifically, the USDA will continue to allow producers to use the claim "natural," which carries a very different meaning from "naturally raised." "Natural" can be applied to a meat label regardless of how an animal was raised, as long as the meat from the animal is "minimally processed" and has "no artificial ingredients" when it is sold on the market. Now "natural" and "naturally raised" products will be sold side-by-side on supermarket shelves, creating confusion over which product has been raised in a way that benefits human health and the environment. Read the description of "naturally raised" (pdf).
| "The addition of USDA's new 'naturally raised' standard alongside the meaningless 'natural' label will confuse consumers and undercut the efforts of responsible producers. To correct this problem, the USDA should eliminate the misleading use of the term 'natural' when referring to processing practices." ~ Margaret Mellon, Food & Environment Program Director |
5. Dangerous MRSA bacterium found in U.S. pigs
As we reported last summer, epidemiologists at the University of Iowa have discovered pigs and pig farmers carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the dangerous bacterium that is responsible for more U.S. deaths than AIDS. The study was the first to document MRSA in U.S. pigs and pig farmers, and the first to find the bacterial strain ST398, shown in Europe to move from pigs to humans, in the United States. These findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, prompting a nationwide call for greater monitoring of and restrictions on antimicrobial use in animal agriculture. Congress can address this problem by passing the soon-to-be-reintroduced Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. Read the study.
