AFIA welcome new leadership

(Posted on 24/05/18)

The American Feed Industry Association’s Board of Directors met 15-16 May for its annual spring meeting in the nation’s capital, where they elected a new chair and several Board and Executive Committee members, discussed priority issues impacting the animal food industry with their legislators and conducted other official business.

The Board, which is comprised of 48 industry representatives, spoke with members of Congress about the lengthy and costly animal food ingredient review and approval process, some of the association’s international trade priorities, and critical animal research and health provisions that the industry would like to see included in the 2018 Farm Bill. They also heard from Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., who spoke about the upcoming farm bill, trade and the state of U.S. agriculture.

“Hopefully, at the end of this week, we’ll come out unscathed on a farm bill,” Rouzer told the Board. Even if the House bill does not move forward, Rouzer seemed confident that Congress would pass a farm bill soon. “We’ll have a farm bill one way or another, it just may not be this iteration of it.”

On the topic of trade, Rouzer told the Board that he is “not alarmed by the rhetoric used or proposed tariffs” by this administration on China, saying he believes it is a tactic used as “a point of negotiation” by the president. He also added that he believes the United States will come to an agreement on the North American Free Trade Agreement soon, saying that, “if Trump was going to get out of NAFTA, he would have done it already.”