January 1, 2016
CapitalPress.com
9
Court rejects latest attack on poultry rules
Lawsuit against
new regulations
dismissed for lack
of standing
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Opponents of new poul-
try slaughter inspection rules
have so far had no luck in be-
ing allowed to challenge the
regulations in court.
A federal appeals court
has shot down the latest at-
tempt by a consumer advo-
cacy group to challenge the
rules, finding the new poultry
inspection system, or NPIS,
doesn’t pose a substantial
Stephen Ausmus/ARS
Chickens are seen in this file photo. Another lawsuit challenging
new USDA rules for inspecting chicken slaughterhouses has been
tossed out of court.
risk of harm to the organiza-
tion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit has up-
held a lower court’s decision
to throw out a lawsuit filed
by the Food & Water Watch
nonprofit for a lack of legal
standing.
A similar case brought by
a union representing poul-
try inspectors was also dis-
missed earlier this year on
similar grounds, but that rul-
ing is being appealed.
Critics of the USDA’s
new poultry inspection rules
claim they’re aimed at mak-
ing life easier for slaughter-
houses while increasing the
danger of foodborne illness
for consumers.
The USDA counters that
its regulations will allow
agency poultry inspectors to
be deployed more effectively
to prevent problems at such
facilities.
The gist of the new system
is that slaughterhouse em-
ployees will be responsible
for more visual evaluation
and sorting of poultry car-
casses, while USDA inspec-
tors will focus on reducing
pathogen hazards throughout
the plant.
Food & Water Watch
complains that during a pilot
project for the new system,
90 percent of non-compli-
ance incidents were related
to fecal contamination that
company employees did not
notice.
The recent federal ap-
peals court ruling said this
finding suggests that such
workers won’t be as effective
as USDA inspectors, but the
group hasn’t shown these re-
sults are actually worse than
under the existing system.
“Thus, they fail to plausi-
bly allege that the regulations
substantially increase the risk
of foodborne illness,” the
court held.
The lawsuit complained
that each USDA inspector
evaluates about 30 carcasses
per minute under the current
system, but that rate would
increase to 200 or more per
minute under the new rules,
resulting in the processing
and shipment of “unwhole-
some, mutilated and diseased
chickens.”
The appellate court called
these allegations “alarming”
but held that they don’t ulti-
mately demonstrate that food
safety outcomes would be in-
ferior to the current system.
Expanding supply, lower demand pushes dairy prices down
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
A cow gets up close and personal during a United Dairymen of Idaho tour of Brubaker Family’s Knott Run
Dairy in Buhl, Idaho, in September. Expanding supply and lower demand are driving dairy prices down.
al Milk Producers Federation.
Butter is being called the
“new Greek yogurt,” he said.
That and tight supplies —
due in part from lower pro-
duction in the West and con-
siderable butter exports last
year that drew down stocks
— saw butter trading at re-
cord-high prices this fall, hit-
ting a high of $3.13 per pound,
he said.
Domestic commercial use of
Oregon Farm Bureau
makes staffing changes
Organization
hires two new
employees, creates
new position
Taylor
butter rose almost 8 percent in
the third quarter of 2015 year
over year. With virtually all
U.S. butter production needed
to supply the domestic mar-
ket, U.S. butter exports August
through October were down
53 percent year over year and
the lowest since the summer
of 2009, NMPF economists re-
ported Dec. 28.
That was a decrease of
3,738 metric tons. And U.S.
butter imports August through
October were up 2,705 metric
tons, 82 percent year over year,
the economists reported.
Domestic commercial use
over year although growth has
slowed since the spring flush,
Newton said.
Producers are responding to
lower prices with less produc-
tion and less milk per cow, but
they can’t just turn it off and
on. Milk production slowed
to just 0.5 percent growth year
over year from August through
October, he said.
Adverse weather and water
shortages are affecting per-
cow yields in California, the
No.1 dairy state, where pro-
duction was down 4 percent
in November and 3.4 percent
year to date. A similar pattern
is being seen in New Zealand,
but some European countries
are showing double digit in-
creases in production now that
quota has ended, he said.
The U.S. industry is fac-
ing some risks in the coming
months, with high inventories
of cheese hanging over the
market and butter stocks re-
building for next year’s holi-
day sales, he said.
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The Oregon Farm Bureau
has made several staffing
changes, including hiring two
new employees, after a long-
time lobbyist for the group
left for another organization.
Katie Fast, formerly the
Farm Bureau’s vice president
of public policy, took a job as
the executive director of Or-
egonians for Food and Shel-
ter, an agribusiness industry
group, earlier this year.
The Farm Bureau has since
promoted Jenny Dresler from
government affairs associate
to director of state public pol-
icy, which is a new position,
said Anne Marie Moss, OFB’s
communications director.
“It’s more a restructuring
than a direct replacement,”
Moss said.
Dresler joined the Farm
Bureau a year ago after pre-
viously working for Sen. Ted
Ferrioli, R-John Day, in leg-
islative and campaign oper-
ations. She holds a master’s
degree from Oregon State
University in environmental
science.
Stepping into the role of
government affairs associate
is Tyler Alexander, who re-
cently graduated from Lewis
and Clark Law School and has
previously worked for OFB as
a law clerk.
Alexander and Dresler will
join Mary Anne Nash, who
will serve as public policy
counsel, in representing the
Farm Bureau’s interests at the
Oregon Legislature.
The group’s other new hire
is Jacon Taylor, who will be
traveling to county Farm Bu-
reau organizations level to
assist volunteers as a regional
coordinator and field repre-
sentative.
51-2/#6
1-1/#7
ROP-1-5-2/#24
A significant expansion in
milk supply colliding with a
significant slowdown in de-
mand in the last few months
has pressured most U.S. dairy
product prices lower, despite
high domestic commercial use
of butter and cheese in the third
quarter.
Cheese prices are now at
$1.40 a pound, down from
$1.65 in November and $2.13
in November 2014. Powder
prices are at 76 cents per pound
for nonfat dry milk, down from
about 84 cents in November
and $1.40 in November 2014.
Butter prices have been the
exception at an average of $2.80
per pound in November, up
from $1.99 in November 2014,
but cash prices were down to
about $2.04 in last week’s spot
market.
Changing
consumption
patterns, in which fat is now
considered a good thing, is
the primary reason for domes-
tic butter demand, said John
Newton, senior director of
economic research at Nation-
of cheese other than Ameri-
can style was up 82 million
pounds and 5 percent year over
year in the third quarter, and
commercial use of American
style cheese was up 24 million
pounds and 2.2 percent.
Domestic commercial use of
fluid milk was down 124 million
pounds and 1 percent and pow-
der use was down 32 million
pounds, nearly 11 percent in the
third quarter. But the strong per-
formance of butter and cheese
was a key contributor to a 3.6
percent increase in commercial
use of milk measured on a milk-
fat-equivalent basis, the econo-
mist reported.
Domestic demand has helped
support milk prices in the U.S.
— although the all-milk price
in October was down $7.20 per
hundredweight year over year
— despite a decline in exports,
which were down 2 percent Au-
gust through October.
Lack of exports, however,
has stocks climbing, and milk
production is still up year