For many of the National Renderers Association (NRA) membership, we will always remember our 2004 convention in New Orleans on the edge of the French Quarter. It was a hot and muggy week, but my memories are more about the sights, sounds, and smells of the unique culture of New Orleans. For better or worse, it will never be the same.
Katrina has also changed the priorities in Washington, DC. It will be a busy fall for Congress as it provides disaster relief programs to the states and people most affected. There will also be numerous hearings investigating what worked and didn’t work in the preparation and aftermath of the storm. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the hearings will be very partisan and the blame game will be the new sport in town.
Many government agencies will be shifting their priorities as well. Disaster relief and reconstruction is a major role not only for the Department of Homeland Security but also the departments of agriculture, defense, health and human services, labor, transportation, commerce, housing and urban development, and energy, to name the more obvious.
With the Senate also having to confirm two Supreme Court nominees, it will really have a full platter.
The NRA staff and officers spent quite a bit of time in late August meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Office of Management and Budget to convey the rendering industry’s thoughts about any changes to the FDA feed rule.
It had been pretty quiet for some time. The USDA’s accelerated bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) testing program has been very successful with over 440,000 samples from so called high-risk animals tested with only one positive case discovered. We felt that people were beginning to realize that the risk of BSE in the United States was extremely low and that hopefully there would be no need to change the feed rule.
However, there are some people that believe no matter how low the risk, it must be mitigated. Consequently, there continues the effort by certain interests to remove some or all of the specified risk materials (SRMs) from the feed stream. FDA has indicated that it intends to publish a new proposed rule in the near future. We do not know all of what might be in the proposal, but we do believe that any proposal that requires the removal of some, or all, SRMs will cause major disposal problems.
The industry’s message to the government regulators and decision makers was that we saw no need to change the feed rule. It is working and has an extremely high compliance rate, one that we are very proud of. There is no new science to justify any changes.
If FDA were to propose some form of SRM removal, the consequence would generate a huge disposal problem. What would happen to all of the SRMs, which would include dead animals picked up at the farm? If there were no economic incentive for the renderer, he might not pick up or process the raw material. The alternatives are not as acceptable as rendering. We suggested the downstream consequences to farmers, processors, small locker plants, and even consumers.
I think for the first time in this ongoing debate we finally have their attention. What we’ll get for our efforts is uncertain, but the NRA is engaged in dialogue with key government officials as they seek our input.
We are told that there is great political pressure on the FDA to come forward with new changes to the feed rule. The critics are reminding the agency that it came forth in January 2004 with an announcement to make several changes to the rule and nothing has occurred since then. Well, much has happened since then. The USDA testing program has confirmed that the risk of BSE in this country is much lower that earlier suspected. This risk factor, along with a lack of scientific justification, economic considerations, and a feed rule that is already working, are all good reasons to leave well enough alone.
Now back to Katrina. Willie Franklin Brooks retired this past January from a distinguished career at the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Brooks was the rendering industry’s inside person who assisted NRA with its Foreign Market Development and Market Access cooperator programs. He’s been attending NRA conventions and International Market Development Committee (IMDC) meetings for over 20 years. As an expression of appreciation, the IMDC invited Brooks and his wife to be our guests at the upcoming NRA convention in Lake Las Vegas. He received his letter of invitation about a week before Katrina struck.
Since then, Brooks has contacted the NRA and thanked us for our recognition of his service to the rendering industry and generous invitation to the convention. He said there are many in the wake of Katrina that need help, and has asked us to make a contribution to a suitable charity with the money that would have taken him and his wife to our convention. The IMDC has granted Brooks’ wish and made a contribution to the American Red Cross in his name.
Thank you, Willie.
From the Association - October 2005 Render