Mellie
Well-known member
Bird-flu measure changed
Small farmers' fears eased on bill setting rules on live markets
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servle...=1137834255376&path=!business&s=1045855934855
BY GREG EDWARDS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 22, 2006
Some small Virginia poultry growers are cackling with delight.
A bill that would allow the state to enact emergency regulations for live-poultry markets has been changed to ease concerns that the measure could run some small farmers out of the poultry business.
The legislation is meant to deal with avian-flu threats posed by live markets. The proposal should come before the Senate for final passage today but will then have to go back to the House for a vote on the Senate changes.
The bill has been amended to make it clear that its provisions do not apply to farmers who sell live birds exclusively on their farms or who slaughter and process their own birds or who have them slaughtered in an approved facility before selling them.
"We won," said Christine Solem, of the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.
The amended language in the legislation went through several rewrites before it finally provided small farmers with the protections they sought, Solem said.
"We hung in there, and we got it," she said. Solem doesn't raise chickens and said her interest in the measure is as a consumer.
Agriculture Commissioner J. Carlton Courter III has contended all along that the proposed regulatory power is not aimed at small farmers. Courter had sought the original legislation and said he supports the changes in the bill.
The legislation is largely a pre- emptive measure because Virginia has no live-bird markets.
Live markets allow customers to select birds and have them slaughtered on the premises. The markets are typically urban and serve ethnic populations or those who shop at the markets because of their religious beliefs.
Neighboring states have live-bird markets. New York is home to roughly 150, Courter said.
At least one poultry dealer supplying live-bird markets has contacted farms in the Shenandoah Valley, looking for birds, he said.
A concern is that Virginia birds could be picked up and hauled to markets in other states where they would be mingled with flu-infected poultry, Courter said. Unsold, infected birds might be returned to Virginia farms, or the flu virus might be brought into Virginia on trucks and cages used to haul birds to the live markets, he said.
The legislation making its way through the General Assembly will give Courter the authority to issue regulations without going through the normal multi-month process. Such regulations could include licensing requirements.
Small farmers' fears eased on bill setting rules on live markets
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servle...=1137834255376&path=!business&s=1045855934855
BY GREG EDWARDS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 22, 2006
Some small Virginia poultry growers are cackling with delight.
A bill that would allow the state to enact emergency regulations for live-poultry markets has been changed to ease concerns that the measure could run some small farmers out of the poultry business.
The legislation is meant to deal with avian-flu threats posed by live markets. The proposal should come before the Senate for final passage today but will then have to go back to the House for a vote on the Senate changes.
The bill has been amended to make it clear that its provisions do not apply to farmers who sell live birds exclusively on their farms or who slaughter and process their own birds or who have them slaughtered in an approved facility before selling them.
"We won," said Christine Solem, of the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.
The amended language in the legislation went through several rewrites before it finally provided small farmers with the protections they sought, Solem said.
"We hung in there, and we got it," she said. Solem doesn't raise chickens and said her interest in the measure is as a consumer.
Agriculture Commissioner J. Carlton Courter III has contended all along that the proposed regulatory power is not aimed at small farmers. Courter had sought the original legislation and said he supports the changes in the bill.
The legislation is largely a pre- emptive measure because Virginia has no live-bird markets.
Live markets allow customers to select birds and have them slaughtered on the premises. The markets are typically urban and serve ethnic populations or those who shop at the markets because of their religious beliefs.
Neighboring states have live-bird markets. New York is home to roughly 150, Courter said.
At least one poultry dealer supplying live-bird markets has contacted farms in the Shenandoah Valley, looking for birds, he said.
A concern is that Virginia birds could be picked up and hauled to markets in other states where they would be mingled with flu-infected poultry, Courter said. Unsold, infected birds might be returned to Virginia farms, or the flu virus might be brought into Virginia on trucks and cages used to haul birds to the live markets, he said.
The legislation making its way through the General Assembly will give Courter the authority to issue regulations without going through the normal multi-month process. Such regulations could include licensing requirements.