DATCP Board Members Comment on Activities

By Joan Sanstadt News Editor
Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:35 AM CST

For its Nov. 12 meeting, the board of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection moved to the UW-Madison Microbial Sciences Building where it also held a public symposium in the afternoon.

Since the board does not meet in October, members’ comments on their own activities since the September meeting demonstrated their breadth of interests and work.

Here’s a smattering of those comments:

- Brian Rude, direct of external relations for Dairyland Power Cooperative, said Dairyland was moving to lower sulphur coal and thus would not require new landfill space for scrubber materials. Another 20 megawatts of wind power had been dedicated at its Winnebago County, Iowa, facility, he said. A former legislator, Rude said a federal stimulus bill might include some funding for waterways infrastructure, such as locks and dams, and also for rail. “The stage is set for real action on rail reform in 2009,” he added.

- Enrique Figueroa, UW-Milwaukee, where he works with the Latino community of Greater Milwaukee, urged fellow board members and department staff “to be cognizant of Proposition 2” passed by California voters on Nov. 4. (This places new animal welfare requirements on producers of hogs and poultry.) He also noted two full-page ads on ethanol in recent issues of the New York Times paid for by food companies.

- Andy Diercks, potato grower from Coloma, reported he’d been working on rewriting rules for this industry.

- Dick Cates, director of the UW School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers and a beef producer, said he’d participated in the recent Ultimate Land Use Tour in Eastern States. “It was so compelling to see grassroots and government working together,” he said. His book, “Voices from the Heart of the Land”, has just been published and he is involved in author talks.

- Margaret Krome, ag policy coordinator for the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, told of working with members of Wisconsin Farmers Union and Clean Wisconsin on a four-point proposal to support advocacy for bioenergy. She’s also helped the department develop grant-writing training workshops. “Last year and this year we’ve been No. 1 in the nation in receiving ag innovation grants,” she said.

- Mike Krutza, whose background is in the farm credit system, said “too big to fail doesn’t work” in the current economy and “too big to solve” might be a better description. He’s been working on planning with Rick Stadelman from the Wisconsin Towns Association and has been impressed with town board members whose ages range from 50 to 80 years or older. “They are very excited about Working Lands and will be a strong partner,” he said. He predicted “a huge explosion of new entrepreneurs in land use and bioenergy if we can get through this period.”

- Mike Dummer, board chair, is director of marketing and service for Equity Livestock Credit Corporation. “It’s been a very wild ride on futures markets; fund managers are out of commodity markets right now.” Dummer mentioned an outbreak of tuberculosis in a large California dairy herd and said, “it is believed to have come from a Mexican worker.” Under different immigration conditions, workers would be tested; “we need workers and those workers need health screening,” he said.

Nilsestuen’s remarks

DATCP Secretary Rod Nilsestuen led off his remarks with comments about the election. “There’s been lots of speculation and expectations, but it presents a daunting set of challenges and will impact us as a state. Stay tuned,” was his message.

Because of the projected $5 billion budget, “the financial situation is very tight at a time when demands on government are the greatest. This reduces significantly the government’s ability to respond,” he pointed out.

“We’re looking at everything and everything is on the table. This means sacrifice and delay because the money won’t be there. It also means hard choices, with education tuition and health care costs being priority items. The bottom line is very fluid right now,” Nilsestuen added.

Nilsestuen said, “the U.S. Justice Department has decided to challenge the acquisition by JBS Swift of National Beef.” The secretary pointed to 90 percent marketplace concentration and said Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) “is very interested in the implications of this. The Justice Department has been more aggressive on this than observers have seen in almost a decade.”

“The momentum on Working Lands continues to be good. There are good, flexible solutions out there. We have a budget-neutral proposal on this,” he added.

Other business

In other business, the board:

- Approved the final draft rule of ATCP 124, dealing with customer access to video services and discriminatory practices by video services providers. DATCP will now submit the final draft rule to the Legislature for committee review. If no legislative action is taken, the DATCP Secretary will sign the order and transmit it for publication. It will take effect on the first day of the month following publication.

- Approved a hearing draft of ATCP 70, a proposed rule updating current a DATCP rule and harmonizes them with current federal rule. The draft rule requires food processors to have written recall plans, but provides flexibility to design such plans for their specific operations. It applies to wholesale food processing plants other than dairy plants and meat processing plants. This rule will go out for public hearing, most likely in the spring.

- Approved a rulemaking scope statement for proposed changes to the Wisconsin Potato Marketing Order. The proposed rule may increase the current limit on potato marketing assessments. That assessment is five-cents per hundredweight, and in 20 years it has increased only two-cents. It would also make changes to the election districts and number of members elected per district n it essentially allows the board to alter current district boundaries. A scope statement allows DATCP staff to begin working on a new rule proposal.

- Approved the final draft of a rule that makes technical changes to a number of DATCP rules.

The next meeting of the DATCP is scheduled to be held on Dec. 10 in Madison.

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