February 2001 - From the Director

Good Riddance to 2000; Hello 2001

By Tom Cook
President, National Renderers Association

This is the time of the year we take a look back at the previous year, briefly, and then look to the future.

The year 2000 did not live up to many of our expectations. Renderers experienced some of the lowest prices in history. We closed the year out with astronomical energy bills. We were reminded that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is still with us and continues to threaten our livelihood.

So what can we expect in 2001?

New U.S. Leadership
For starters, we are gaining a new administration in Washington. With the election of President George W. Bush, over 7,000 politically appointed jobs became available. Many of the new positions to be filled will be with people that will impact the rendering industry.

The clamoring for these coveted jobs will continue well into the year. While the top cabinet positions have been named and will likely be confirmed shortly, in many cases, the other sub-cabinet positions will linger well into the summer.

It is quite a guessing game as to just who will be appointed to this position or that position. Lists get circulated with many names mentioned for just about every position. Most of the names are floated as trial balloons and for ego gratification. In many cases, the serious contenders and successful candidates don’t campaign openly.

President Bush is getting high marks for his choices so far. His selection for Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, is no stranger to the agricultural community. In fact, many National Renderers Association (NRA) members became acquainted with Veneman when she was a featured luncheon speaker at the 1999 NRA convention in Scottsdale, AZ. She knows and appreciates the importance of the rendering industry, meeting several times with industry leaders while the director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

We don’t know much about how Christine Todd Whitman will be as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She had a good record balancing environmental issues with different constituencies as governor of New Jersey. It is expected that the EPA will be more receptive to listening to the views of business and will take a more balanced approach than did the EPA of the Clinton administration.

The key trade related positions important to our industry have not been nominated as of this writing. The NRA officers and staff plan to meet with the new administration appointees that most directly affect the rendering industry when they are in their new positions.

BSE on Agenda Again
We are going into the new year with a lot of uncertainty over the BSE situation in Europe and its impact throughout the world. The newly discovered cases in France and Germany have stirred things up all over again. Hopefully, lessons learned from 1996 and 1997 can help guide us through this present debacle.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been taking steps to protect our borders and the livestock industry from the introduction of BSE since the mid-1980s. Just recently, the USDA took additional actions to stop the importation of all animal meals from the European Union. The North American Rendering Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Coalition has been reactivated and has had several conference calls to keep the industry informed on the European Union situation. We have been in communication with the appropriate government agencies in the spirit of total cooperation with them. We are meeting in Washington with other industry groups that have an interest in BSE, including the cattlemen and feed industry.

NRA Chairman Mike Langenhorst represented the association at meetings in Brussels, Belgium, with rendering and feed industry officials from several countries in late January. He also met with key U.S. government officials based in Brussels and Geneva that represent the United States in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, Codex, and the World Health Organization. The NRA will be active and vigilant in protecting the interests of renderers in the BSE debate as well as other issues affecting the industry in the government arena.

Thanks for 30 Years
On a final note, with this issue, Render magazine begins its 30th year as the publication for the rendering industry. Since I have been with the NRA, we have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the publication. NRA members have expressed to me many times how much they appreciate and enjoy reading Render. It is a professional, timely, and informative publication for the industry. We enjoy reading the news and stories that are published and want to thank the advertisers for their continued support of the magazine. Congratulations and keep up the good work.