During the last few weeks we’ve been trying to cover the fast-changing federal livestock air emission regulations, which were supposed to go into effect Nov. 15. It was impossible. U.S. EPA wasn’t ready, and neither was the animal ag industry.

Producers who tried to report allegedly risked having emergency services and law enforcement show up unannounced. Ag academic experts developed a formula for determining how much ammonia and hydrogen sulfide would be emitted by livestock operations. But so many factors not included would make the calculation almost meaningless — to all but federal regulators.

It’s time to put this puppy to rest due to the potential cost to livestock producers and EPA’s longer term intentions — to clamp down on estimated emissions. Most livestock producers are already finding ways to reduce emissions and improve their bottom lines with incentives, not whips. That’s one of the awesome benefits of American free enterprise.

Animal agriculture, as an industry, needs to urge President Trump to take executive action on this “swamp creature.”

Animal feed is already safe
The Food and Drug Administration made a similar ag sector invasion with its interpretation of the Food Safety and Modernization Act. FDA seemed to group-think that farm animals and pets needed regulatory protection as much as consumers.

The truth is: the Animal Food Rule is another “swamp creature” that deserves to be put out of its misery and cost with Trump’s execution.The American animal food/feed industry is already well-regulated. No reliable cost-benefit studies supported FDA’s intrusion.

A 2017 CoBank report on the U.S. feed industry warned that the food rule and traceability standards will speed consolidation of feed mills. FDA “makes no distinction between feed and food, regardless of human or animal consumption,” says Trevor Amen, CoBank animal protein economist.

The American Feed Industry Association estimates 80% to 90% of all 19,000 U.S. animal feed mills fall under the small-business category. If you think on-farm feed mills would wriggle out of compliance, read the bureaucratic legalese.

The “farm” definition is as clear as mud. The agency is “concerned” about feed mills that are part of a farm and whether they are majority-owned by a primary production farm. FDA is already working on more rules for whoever meets “small” and “very small” business definitions — so none escape.

FSMA’s new traceability standards add another burden — $2 to $5 a ton, according to AFIA’s estimates. Most of that cost stems from increased recordkeeping requirements. To low-ball it, that would cost a mill selling 100,000 tons of feed about $200,000. Guess who’ll pay that extra tab.

And catch this: Enforcement of FSMA rules would be pawned off to state agencies. Early this year, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture estimated the annual state implementation program costs for just preventive controls for animal food at $20 million. That’s to ensure the industry, farmers included, have the tools and education necessary to comply with regulations “doing little, if anything to enhance food safety,” says NASDA’s CEO Barbara Glenn.

What about alternative feeds coming out the back-end of grain processing? More than 3 million tons of spent grains and hops are handed off to farmers and feed mills, according to industry estimates.

“We don’t know of any problems,” says Dan McChesney, director of surveillance and compliance with the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. “But we’re trying to get to a preventive mode.”

Agriculture, too, must shift to a preventive mode — to petition the president and even Congress — to kill these voracious swamp creatures. It begins with you and your farm organizations.