U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has been under fire in the past week for his campaign to defeat legislation that would strengthen the federal animal fighting law by making it a crime to attend or take a child to a dogfight or cockfight. He said dogfighting is not a problem and there is no federal nexus—apparently forgetting about the Iowa high school teacher who was sentenced under federal law in 2010 for his part in a massive interstate dogfighting ring and a series of other major animal fighting incidents that have occurred in the state in recent years.
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert lampoons Steve King's
stance on animal fighting.
(Click image to view the video clip.)
But it’s another campaign by Steve King that has recently gotten the attention of state officials. He claims to be in favor of states’ rights, but King introduced an amendment to the Farm Bill seeking to wipe out dozens of state and local agriculture-related laws that promote animal welfare and food safety. Apparently he is only for states’ rights when he agrees with what the states are doing; otherwise, he is perfectly fine with federal mandates telling states what they can and cannot do.
In a letter sent to the California congressional delegation, Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture, said the effects of the King amendment “are far broader than the stated purpose,” posing a significant threat to our nation’s food supply and severely undermining states’ rights. Secretary Ross highlighted just some of the potential impacts of the far-reaching King amendment on state policies:
- It “would invalidate many California phytosanitary requirements that are intended to prevent the entrance of invasive species and diseases that destroy crops and natural resources…For example, just one invasive pest, the Asian citrus psyllid, and the disease it vectors, Huanglongbing, for which there is no cure, has the potential to completely destroy our $1.8 billion citrus industry. In one recent study in Florida, the presence of Huanglongbing increased citrus production costs by 40%. The King Amendment would severely hamper a California’s ability to address these threats, putting the nation’s food supply at risk.”
- It “would severely hamper California’s food safety requirements and standards. For instance, it would invalidate dairy pasteurization requirements, egg quality and safety standards, bacterial, somatic cell and coliform standards, and pathogen standards placed on the importation of aquatic plants and animals, It would also impact California’s livestock and poultry disease prevention efforts, including Tuberculosis testing requirements, Brucellosis vaccination requirements, and poultry health entry requirements designed to prevent an incident like Exotic Newcastle’s Disease. Additionally, it would threaten our State Veterinarian’s Quarantine authority.”
- It “also negatively impacts any state’s efforts to protect its lands and natural resources. With its sweeping nature, this amendment creates a risk to California’s aquatic resources due to lack of pathogen surveillance on importation of aquatic plants and animals. Additionally, the amendment may limit California’s ability to restrict importation of animals that we consider detrimental to our environment. Furthermore, this amendment is problematic for our forest products industry and efforts to prevent pests impacting these products. Firewood is a major vector of highly damaging invasive insects and California strongly wishes to retain our ability to require imported firewood to be heat treated to kill pests that have the potential to destroy our natural resources.”
- Finally, it “has the potential to impact other programs, such as our feed inspection standards, fruit and vegetable quality standards, shellfish safety, organic inputs, and, possibly, labeling requirements. For instance, in the ongoing effort to minimize food safety risks, California adopted stringent aflatoxin standards; aflotoxins are known to be human carcinogens that readily transfer to milk when feed inclusion levels exceed the threshold ability level for the liver to detoxify the metabolites feed safety standards.”
As Secretary Ross said, “We must retain the ability to protect the nation’s food supply against these threats. The King amendment would undermine these efforts.” Members of Congress who care about protecting states’ rights to make decisions that are good for the economy, agriculture industry, consumers, and animal welfare, should make sure the King amendment is eradicated like an infectious pathogen from the Farm Bill.
