Federal News

AFIA Condemns Trumps First Trade Decision

The American Feed Industry Association is extremely disappointed with President Donald Trump’s executive action today to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. “TPP, and agreements like it, are key to setting the terms and rules for future trade relationships, creating higher standards and expectations than previous trade deals. While the U.S. economy generally deals with a trade deficit, agriculture is the one segment where our country enjoys a strong trade surplus,” said AFIA President and CEO Joel G. Newman.  U.S. agriculture exports, including commercial feed, are increasing despite a global slowdown in overall trade. U.S. feed industry jobs are created and supported by overseas demand for American products. Trade agreements, such as TPP, allow U.S. producers to exploit growing overseas demand. Much of this growing demand is in the Asia-Pacific region, but mounting competition and new trade agreements within that region that exclude the U.S. continue to block opportunities for the U.S. feed industry to capture this demand.

Five Myths Surrounding the Veterinary Feed Directive

While it is true change can be a good thing, it rarely occurs without a learning curve. Not surprisingly, then, that is the case with the Veterinary Feed Directive after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently tightened the federal rule.

As of Jan. 1, producers must obtain an authorization or prescription to purchase medically important antibiotics and administer them to food animals through feed and drinking water. Medically important antibiotics are medicines critical to treating human diseases.

FDA wants to regulate gene edited animals

FDA is issuing this draft revised Guidance for Industry to clarify its approach to the regulation of intentionally altered genomic DNA in animals. This guidance addresses animals whose genomes have been intentionally altered using modern molecular technologies, which may include random or targeted DNA sequence changes including nucleotide insertions, substitutions, or deletions, or other technologies that introduce specific changes to the genome of the animal. 1,2,3 This guidance applies to the intentionally altered genomic DNA in both the founder animal in which the initial alteration event occurred and the entire subsequent lineage of animals that contains the genomic alteration. More recently, new technologies have emerged that are intended to alter the genomes of various organisms, including animals. Some of these include the use of “nucleases” or “genome editing technologies” including engineered nuclease/nucleotide complexes such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and the clustered regulatory interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated systems. 8 These nucleases are intended to introduce alterations at specific sites in the genome, rather than the more random changes associated with rDNA technology. The process of producing these targeted DNA sequence alterations is often referred to as “genome editing.” We anticipate that other technologies intended to alter genomic DNA will arise over time.

Tom Vilsack to Take Helm of U.S. Dairy Export Council

The U.S. Dairy Export Council announced that former U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will join the organization as president and CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2017. USDEC is a non-profit, independent organization that seeks to enhance the global demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients.  - See more at: http://www.usdec.org/newsroom/news-releases/news-releases/news-release-0...