August 26, 2020

Illinois, US, beef association voices support for livestock management act

The Illinois Beef Association (US) supports the Livestock Management Facilities Act (LMFA) as one of its many policy priorities.

LMFA has existed for more than two decades and is described as "a balanced approach to protecting the environment and allowing farmers the ability to raise livestock on their farms," said Jill Johnson, executive vice president of Illinois Beef Association (IBA),  during the Cattlemen's Education Series organised by the association.

"It has a great track record of ensuring livestock farms are sited and designed to protect the environment and allow farmers to raise livestock," Johnson said. "It's important because it provides statewide, consistent standards that are regulated through the Department of Agriculture."

Another IBA priority is supporting and maintaining a balanced system for antibiotic use.

"Over the past couple of years, we've seen state legislation filed that would seek to further regulate antibiotic use on farms," Johnson said. "When we talk to legislators, we stress that farmers have long been concerned with the welfare of livestock and we also discuss the Beef Quality Assurance Program that includes important industry guidelines for animal care."

At the national level, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is focused on building a successful regulatory framework to ensure appropriate oversight and labeling of lab-grown meat.

"NCBA is also focused on advancing legislative and regulatory efforts to end deceptive labeling of plant-based proteins and continue to push back on false health and environmental claims that disparage beef's good name," Johnson said.

IBA leaders decided to run an advertising campaign to highlight the differences in beef and plant-based proteins.

"The message was seen by thousands of Illinois residents earlier this year that there's no substitute for beef," Johnson said.

This year also marked a challenging period for IBA as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted several of its activities.

"We worked closely with our congressional delegation to make sure beef producers received assistance through the CARES Act," Johnson said. "Generally, the beef industry doesn't ask for support programmes, but in the case of COVID-19 and what we saw happen to our supply chain and markets, we heard from our members that they needed help."

IBA worked with other community groups in the state when the Illinois Legislature was in session at the end of May to develop a budget for the 2021 fiscal year.

"We worked together to secure US$5 million for market disruption support for livestock producers," Johnson said. "That programme is ongoing in terms of working out the details."

- Agrinews