In what may be the worst timing ever, my first column appeared last Friday, and on Sunday Yum! Brands announced the most aggressive cage-free egg effort of fast-food chains to date. It was brought to my attention by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). That’s right. Senior food policy director Josh Balk e-mailed to inform me that he had read my article regarding Taco Bell.

“Thought you’d be interested in the update that Taco Bell has just issued this statement with HSUS regarding its switch to 100% cage-free eggs — a transition it’ll have complete by the end of 2016, which is the fastest phase-in of any major company in U.S. history,” he wrote.

Laurie Fischer, President of the American Dairy Coalition

While part of me is tickled that HSUS cares about what I think, I am more concerned than ever at the tradeoffs HSUS deems “acceptable.” I pointed out to Mr. Balk that The Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply researched and looked at different egg-laying housing systems for food safety, worker safety, egg affordability, environmental impact and hen health and well-being. In their research they found that while indoor, cage-free chickens had almost double the amount of space per bird, including perches and dust bath “litter areas,” they also had more than double the rate of chicken mortality (approximately 11% per flock) than the traditional cage environment (less than 5% per flock). This higher mortality rate and additional space needs of cage-free hens increased the cost of a dozen eggs by 36%.”

That’s ok with HSUS, according to Mr. Balk, as cage-free “allows vital natural behaviors to be fulfilled.” We know that for farmers and ranchers, animal welfare is of the highest concern. But they, put the care of their animals first.

TPP in T-R-O-U-B-L-E

The Trans Pacific Partnership appears to be headed for trouble in Congress.

The trade deal with 11 Pacific Rim countries — the largest trade deal the U.S. has negotiated since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico — won fast-track authority for President Obama thanks to the efforts of House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).  However, neither has decided if they will support it.

In fact, the deal has yet to find any broad support. Republicans don’t like it, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz don’t like it, and business groups don’t like it. Senator Hatch, in fact, has suggested the U.S. Trade Representative reopen negotiations.

Jacqui Fatka, who covers agriculture policy for Farm Futures, recently wrote that
 “U.S. exports of agricultural products to the 11 other TPP countries totaled $63 billion in 2014, 42% of total U.S. agricultural exports. Fatka also quoted USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack as saying that “without question, agriculture is going to be a winner with TPP.” Overall it is estimated total U.S. exports could increase by $130 billion and “if that’s true and agriculture takes its historic share of 9% of total exports, that is billions of dollars of additional opportunity.”

For example, TPP will eliminate import taxes as high as 40% on U.S. poultry products, 35% on soybeans, and 40% on fruit exports. Sounds like agriculture is being taken care of, but does dairy get a fair shake out of this deal?  Let’s not take a huge opportunity like the TPP and not use this policy as an opportunity for dramatically increasing exports of our nutritious, safe, affordable dairy products.  We have window of opportunity to increase dairy exports and the American Dairy Coalition is watching this closely and working with our processor members to find any opportunity we can to improve the TPP while this policy moves forward on Capitol Hill.

USDA has done an excellent job of compiling commodity benefits at www.fas.usda.gov/tpp-benefits-us-agricultural-products. For state-by-state benefits, visit www.fas.usda.gov/tpp-benefits-us-states.”

The President only needs 51 votes in the Senate to pass the current TPP policy, because fast-track authority prevents a filibuster, but the House vote would be anything but a certainty.

The American Dairy Coalition – The voice of America’s Dairy Farms is a new nationwide coalition of dairy producers and their industry partners, formed to promote effective federal policy that ensures an abundant supply of safe, nutritious dairy products to meet domestic and international market demand. ADC is led by led by Laurie Fischer (former executive director of the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association), and is working with aligned dairy farmers and national dairy producer associations to become a united voice for America’s dairy farmers and fill an existing void in federal advocacy for the growth of the modern dairy industry. For more information, e-mail info@americandairycoalition.org or visit www.americandairycoalition.org/