The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) on Thursday joined nearly 90 agricultural organizations in filing two sets of comments with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Reporting Rule.
The first set of comments was signed by a coalition of 88 national, state and local agricultural groups. The second set of comments was filed on behalf of NPPC and the American Farm Bureau Federation and concerned the various legal issues the organizations have with the rule and challenges the rule would face if finalized.
Under EPA’s proposal, large livestock and poultry facilities would be required to submit to EPA substantial confidential farm and business information. The CAFO database was established as a clearinghouse for activists on the location of farms as part of a settlement between the Obama administration and anti-farming groups.
NPPC expressed concerns that as a result of these actions pork producers would face substantial legal liability and that compiling this information would threaten the biosecurity of producers’ operations.
NPPC also believes the CAFO rule would provide virtually no added benefits to improving manure management or protecting water.
NPPC Vice President Randy Spronk, a pork producer from Edgerton, MN, met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in December to express the pork industry’s concerns with the proposed rule.