September 2011 - Iowa Pork Producers Association

News from the
National Pork Producers Council
Pew Comission report urges restrictions
on livestock numbers
An environmental group is calling on the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to use controls
put in place to enforce total maximum daily limits on
certain nutrients going into the Chesapeake Bay to
impose livestock and poultry density limits.
In a July 27 report, “Big Chicken: Pollution and
Industrial Poultry Production in America,” the
Pew Environment Group – not to be confused with
the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal
Production, but which includes personnel from that
commission – urged EPA to depopulate or limit
livestock and poultry farms through Clean Water Act
permits the facilities would be required to obtain.
The Pew report also calls on EPA to set standards for
land-application of manure and urges states in the
Chesapeake Bay to require large and medium-sized
livestock and poultry facilities to obtain permits. But
in a recent lawsuit NPPC filed and won, a federal court
rejected an EPA rule that sought to require CAFOs
that “propose” to discharge to seek permits. The court
ruled that only facilities that actually discharge must
obtain permits.
Comments submitted on draft
guidance on identifying waters
protected by CWA
NPPC in July joined a number of other organizations
submitting comments on draft guidance on
identifying waters protected by the Clean Water Act.
NPPC and the other organizations expressed concern
with that expansion, commenting that the agencies
misconstrued and reinterpreted a U.S. Supreme
Court case to support their new, expansive definition
of “waters of the United States.” In addition, the
groups said the scope of the guidance and its call for
modifications to existing EPA and Corps rules make it
a proposed regulation, which should be promulgated
under the rules of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Federal welfare law on egg production
a dangerous precedent
The National Pork Producers Council has expressed
concern that federal legislation being pushed by the
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the
United Egg Producers (UEP) would set a dangerous
precedent for allowing the federal government to
dictate how livestock and poultry producers raise and
care for their animals.
The proposal would inject the federal government into
the marketplace with no measureable benefit to public
or animal health and welfare, NPPC said.
HSUS and UEP announced an agreement between the
two organizations July 7 on the size of cages for laying
hens, moving from UEP’s standard of 64 square inches
to 124 square inches over 15-18 years. HSUS agreed to
stop litigation against
and undercover
Proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
draft guidance would expand the agencies’ jurisdiction
over waterways and bodies of water.
36 SEPTEMBER 2011