(in alphabetical order)
PROJECT REQUESTS
The University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
101 Connor Hall
Athens, GA 30602
Project: Cotton Insect Management and Fiber Quality, GA
Recipient: The University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Funding Request: $500,000
Background: The overarching goal of this project is to improve the overall quality, value, and profitability of Georgia cotton. Stink bugs and other insect pest populations significantly damage fiber quality by feeding on developing cotton balls. Control strategies are being developed to control potentially damaging populations of stink bugs and other emerging or introduced pests on cotton fiber quality.
Georgia growers planted more than 950,000 acres of cotton in 2009 with a value approaching $600 million in lint and seed alone. While cotton acreage nationwide has decreased 45% since 2005, Georgia's cotton production continues to remain steady. Growers have benefited immensely from boll weevil eradication and development and evaluation of transgenic cultivars; however, stink bugs and other piercing/sucking insect pests are rapidly increasing under these new management regimes and may imperil our ability to continue economically producing high-quality cotton fiber. Research clearly shows that these insect pests directly reduce seed cotton yield, gin turn-out, and fiber brightness while increasing fiber yellowness. The proposed research will increase profitability and maintain fiber quality through development of better insect sampling techniques, implementation of research-based management thresholds, improved understanding of the biology ecology of these emerging insect pests, improved pesticide management, and continued strong extension programming. Results from these studies will enable Georgia cotton producers to remain competitive in domestic and world cotton markets.
Studies in 2011 will include evaluating the environmental conditions required for stink bugs to enter and exit reproductive diapause, a study on the timing of planting date and stink bug arrival, stink bug feeding behavior on individual plants, efficacy of a newly discovered stink bug natural enemy, continuation of a farmscape-wide investigation of stink bug movement through common crop rotations, studies on the transmission of boll rot pathogens by stink bugs, and development of a quicker sampling plan for making treatment decisions. We will also investigate the mechanism of spider mite outbreaks and how to reduce these infestations. Information will be transferred to the cotton community in the Southeast through extension outreach and publications. Supporting cotton production will stimulate economic growth and create employment in economically challenged regions of Georgia and throughout the Southeast.
Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
40 Courtland St., NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Project: Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Recipient: Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Funding Request: $3,000,000
Background: Local governments throughout the District's 16-county area (Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglass, Fayette, Fulton, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding, Rockdale and Walton Counties, Georgia) are required to implement the District's three water resource plans in order to receive permits from GA EPD. It is estimated that more than $75 billion will be spent over the next 30 years to implement the plans.
USDA/ARS National Peanut Research Lab, Dawson, GA
1011 Forrester Drive, SE
Dawson, GA 39842
Project: Water Use Reduction, Dawson, GA
Recipient: USDA/ARS National Peanut Research Lab, Dawson, GA
Funding Request: $480,000
Background: This joint project (USDA-ARS Dawson and University of Georgia) will evaluate and develop methods for the use of highly effective Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SSDI) systems in row crops. The goal is to develop management criteria for row crop producers to maximize the impact of subsurface drip irrigation on their operations while increasing water use efficiency and water conservation. By utilizing efficient SSDI row crops, growers' economic returns will improve which will greatly benefit U.S. rural economies.
In-field SSDI research projects will be initiated in major row crop areas of Georgia. These projects will span a minimum of 3 years and will demonstrate SSDI installation, ease of use, water savings, crop yield response, and economics. Plant growth, health, and maturation as well as soil moisture characteristics in various drip irrigation systems will be monitored and treatments imposed to identify best management practices for weed, insect, and disease challenges with SSDI drip irrigation.
Use of drip irrigation in row crops is not limited to Georgia. Knowledge gained in the project will be very applicable to other agricultural regions in the U.S. Water conservation while producing sustainable yields is of interest nationally.
PROGRAM LEVEL REQUEST
Program Level Request: Animal Fighting Enforcement and other Responsibilities
Funding Level Request: $90,000,000
Background: We appreciate the Committee’s inclusion of funding and language in recent years for USDA’s OIG to focus on animal fighting cases. Congress first prohibited most interstate and foreign commerce of animals for fighting in 1976, tightened loopholes in the law in 2002, established felony penalties in 2007, and further strengthened the law as part of the 2008 Farm Bill. We are pleased the USDA is taking seriously its responsibility to enforce this law, working with state and local agencies to complement their efforts to address these barbaric practices, in which animals are drugged to heighten their aggression and forced to keep fighting even after they have suffered grievous injuries. Dogs bred and trained to fight endanger public safety, and some dogfighters steal pets to use as bait for training their dogs. Cockfighting was liked to an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease in 2002-2003 that costs taxpayers more than $200 million to contain. It’s also been linked to the death of a number of people in Asia reportedly exposed through cockfighting activity to bird flu. Given the potential for further costly disease transmission, as well as the animal cruelty involved, we believe it is a sound investment for the federal government to increase its efforts to combat illegal animal fighting activity. We also support OIG’s auditing and investigative work to improve compliance with the humane slaughter law and downed animal rules and the Horse Protection Act.
Program Level Request: Animal Welfare
Funding Level Request: $22,333,000
Background: We commend the Committee for responding in recent years to the urgent need for increasing funding for the Animal Care division to improve its inspection of more than 12,000 sites, including commercial breeding facilities, laboratories, zoos, circuses, and airlines, to ensure compliance with AWA standards. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress established a new responsibility for this division – to enforce a ban on imports from foreign puppy mills where puppies are mass produced under inhumane conditions and forced to endure harsh long-distance transport. Animal Care currently has 115 inspectors (with 2 vacancies to be filled), compared to 64 inspectors at the end of the 1990s. An appropriation at the requested level would maintain FY10 funding with a modest increase to cover pay costs and help ensure that the agency can provide adequate oversight of the increasing number of licensed/registered facilities.
Program Level Request: Commodity Supplemental Food Program
Funding Level Request: $17,678,800
Background: The commodity Supplemental Food Program is a critical nutrition program that delivers U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodities primarily to seniors, and mothers and children. In this time of economic hardship, reliance on nutrition assistance is greater than ever. CSFP is an important component of our nutrition efforts because it reaches many seniors who qualify for no other programs while providing delivery for those that are homebound.
CSFP provides 600,000 food packages each month in 39 states (including seven new states as a direct result of your action in FY10), the District of Columbia, and 2 Indian Tribal Organizations. This year 96 percent of the participants are elderly individuals with an income at or below $14,079. CSFP food packages are designed to supplement needed sources of nutrients typically lacking in participant’s diets, including protein, iron, zinc, and vitamins B-6 and B-12. CSFP providers also have been very cost efficient: the typical food package has a retail value up to $50 but costs the federal government less than $20 per participant package.
Program Level Request: Emergency Management Systems/Disaster Planning and Response for Animals
Funding Level Request: $1,017,000
Background: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated that many people refuse to evacuate if they are forced to leave their pets behind. The Animal Care division has been asked to develop infrastructure to help prepare for and respond to animal issues in a disaster and incorporate lessons learned from previous disasters. These funds are used for staff time and resources to support state and local governments’ and humane organizations’ efforts to plan for protection of people with animals, and to enable the agency to participate with FEMA, in the National Response Plan without jeopardizing other Animal Care programs.
Program Level Request: Humane Slaughter - HMSA
Funding Level Request: $3,000,000
Background: We request that $2 million be allocated out of the $3 million in Human Animal Tracking funding for the purpose of hiring and training a mobile review team to conduct unscheduled audits and undercover surveillance focused assessing compliance with humane handling rules of live animals as they arrive and are offloaded and handled in pens, chutes, and stunning areas.
Program Level Request: Horse Protection
Funding Level Request: $900,000
Background: Congress enacted the HPA in 1970s to make illegal the abusing practice of “soring” in which unscrupulous trainers use a variety of methods to inflict pain on sensitive areas of Tennessee Walking Horses’ hooves and legs to exaggerate their high-stepping gait and gain unfair competitive advantage at horse shows. For example, caustic chemicals – such as mustard oil, diesel fuel, and kerosene – are painted on the lower front legs of a horse, then the legs are wrapped for days in plastic wrap and tight bandages to cook the chemical deep into the horse’s sore legs. Additional tactics include inserting foreign objects such as metal screws or acrylic between a heavy stacked shoe and the horse’s hoof; pressuring shoeing – cutting a horse’s hoof down to the sensitive live tissue to cause extreme pain every time the horse bears weight on the hoof; and applying painful chemicals such as salicylic acid to slough off scarred tissue, in an attempt to disguise the sored areas. Though soring has been illegal for 40 years, this cruel practice continues unabated by the well intentioned but seriously understaffed APHIS inspection program. Several Horse show industry groups, animal protection groups, and the key organization of equine veterinarians have called for funding increases to enable the USDA to do a better job enforcing this law. To meet this goal of the HPA, Animal Care inspectors must be present at more shows. Exhibitors who sore their horses go to great lengths to avoid detection, even fleeing a show when the USDA inspectors arrive. But with current funding, Animal Care is able to attend only about 6$ of the more than 500 Tennessee Walking Horse shows held annually. An appropriation at the requested level will help provide for additional inspectors, training, security (to address threats of violence against inspectors), and advanced detection equipment (thermography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry machines).
Program Level Request: Investigative & Enforcement Service
Funding Level Request: $14,213,000
Background: We appreciate the Committee’s consistent support for this division, which handles many important responsibilities, including the investigation of alleged violations of federal animal welfare laws and the initiation of appropriate enforcement actions. The volume animal welfare causes is rising significantly as new facilities become licensed and registered. An appropriation at the requested level would maintain FY09 funding with a modest increase to cover pay costs.
Program Level Request: Veterinary Student Loan Forgiveness
Funding Level Request: $5,000,000
Background: This program received $2,950,000 in FY2009, $4,800,000 in FY10, and was projected to need $5,000,000 in its third year under the CBO score to accompany authorization. We appreciate that the Congress is working to address the critical shortage of veterinarians practicing in rural and inner-city areas, as well as in government positions at FSIS and APHIS. A 2009 Government Accountability Office report enumerating the challenges facing veterinary medicine identified that an inadequate number of veterinarians to meet national needs is among the foremost challenges. A 2006 study demonstrated that the acute and worsening shortage of veterinarians working in rural farm animal practice, while domestic pets in both rural and urban areas are often left without necessary medical care. Having adequate veterinary care is a core animal welfare concern. To ensure adequate oversight of humane handling of food safety rules, FSIS must be able to fill vacancies in inspector positions. Veterinarians also support our nation’s defense against bioterrorism (the Centers for Disease Control estimate that 75% of potential bioterrorism agents are zoonotic – transmitted from animals to humans). They are also on the front lines addressing public health problems such as those associated with pet overpopulation, parasites, rabies, chronic wasting disease, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow” disease). Veterinary school graduates face a crushing debt burden of $130,000 on average, with an average starting salary of $65,000. For those who choose employment in underserved rural or inner-city areas or public health practice, the National Veterinary Medical Service Act authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to forgive student debt. It also authorizes financial assistance for those who provide services during federal emergency situations such as disease outbreaks.