Policy Updates and Issue News June 2024

Farm Bill Update

The ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, has released his proposed farm bill framework that largely mirrors the legislation passed by the House Agriculture Committee last month. “The Senate Republican framework won’t come as any surprise and mirrors what our stakeholders have been calling for over the past two years,” according to Boozman. He said it was time to gather around the table and get serious about getting a farm bill or agree to disagree and start working on an extension. Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow of Michigan indicated she wouldn’t move forward with a farm bill that has the nutrition and climate policies included in the House committee bill or the Senate Republican framework. These developments further fuel talk of the possible need for Congress to pass another extension of the 2018 farm bill by the end of this year.

DOD Cultured Meat Research Upsets Producers

The Department of Defense has given a grant to BioMADE to “build a sustainable, domestic, end-to-end bio industrial manufacturing ecosystem” to develop these products for military rations. Meat producers and several members of Congress are seriously questioning the research initiative. Two private companies are attempting to develop tasty and affordable cell cultured products but appear to be years away from a profitable product.

Farm Bill Research Funding

The National Grange and 66 other ag, food, conservation and scientific groups are calling on Congress to include significant increases for public agricultural innovation research in the new farm bill. Public investment in agricultural R&D has declined by one-third over the last two decades while ag research spending in China, the EU and Brazil has continued to rise.

Emissions Standards for Work Vehicles Challenged

Farm groups have joined with the oil industry, the renewable fuels industry, independent truck drivers and others to challenge the Biden administration’s new emissions standards for work-type vehicles model years 2027 and beyond. The American Petroleum Institute, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, National Corn Growers Association, American Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union, Renewable Fuels Association, Clean Fuels Alliance, and a group of six multi-state auto dealers have filed petitions in the D.C. Circuit of Appeals. Petitioners say the EPA exceeded its congressional authority with a regulation that relies too heavily on electrification and does not fully appreciate the role low carbon fuels like ethanol and biodiesel play in the transportation sector.

Patient Access to Nonopioid Pain Medicines

National Grange president Christine Hamp hosted a webinar June 24 about supporting patient access to nonopioid medicine through state legislation and policies. Speakers included Dr. Robert Twillman, a pain management psychologist on the board of the American Chronic Pain Association, and Abby Trotter, Executive Director at Life Science Tennessee. The webinar focused on state level policies and legislation that improve access and affordability of pain treatment options that do not carry potential addiction consequences.

City-Country Mortality Disparities Widen

A recent report from Economic Research Service at USDA found the health disparities chasm between rural and urban Americans has widened in recent decades. USDA researchers found rural Americans ages 25 to 54 die from natural causes like chronic diseases and cancer at widely higher rates than the same age group living in urban areas. In 1999, the natural-cause mortality rate for people ages 25-54 in rural areas was only 6% higher than for city dwellers in the same age bracket. By 2019, the gap had widened to 49%. The expanding gap was driven by rapid growth in the number of women living in rural places who succumb young to treatable or preventable diseases.

Make RSV Vaccine Readily Available to Older Americans

Each year, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes approximately 60,000-160,00 hospitalizations and 8,000-10,000 deaths annually among adults ages 65 and older. The National Grange joined several patient groups to request the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) make RSV vaccine readily available to all adults ages 65 and older (lower from current age 75). The group further requested these vulnerable patients be able to continue to receive RSV vaccines at their preferred pharmacies. They also stressed the need to have RSV vaccines readily available prior to the fall and winter flu, pneumonia and RSV season.

Cancer Screening Push Continues

The National Grange is part of a working group that continues to push Congress to pass the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act (H.R. 2407). The MCED screen can detect many types of cancers with a simple blood draw at earlier stages when the chances of successful treatments and cures are much higher.  The bill would require Medicare to pay for access to MCED screening. A majority of members in both houses of Congress now cosponsor the legislation.

Grange Testifies on Vaccine Availability

National Grange’s Burton Eller was invited to present testimony to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee June 5. Eller recounted efforts of national, state and local Grange chapters to provide immunization information and access to vaccines for rural and small-town residents. He stressed the need to have vaccines readily available earlier in the respiratory disease season. As an example, the joint effort of the National Grange and New England State Granges to provide shots for attendees to the Eastern States Exposition last year was almost thwarted because vaccine supplies were not available by the September 15 start date. At the last minute, vaccine manufacturers made supplies available and nearly 3,500 flu and COVID shots were administered to Big E attendees.

Updates on Long COVID

A report recently released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers some perspective on the effects of Long COVID. Interesting findings from the report include:

• About 7% of U.S. adults have experienced Long COVID
• People whose infection was severe are 2-3 times more likely to experience Long COVID
• There are more than 200 symptoms of Long COVID
• Long Covid manifests differently for each person and recovery time varies
• Women are more likely to have Long COVID
• Vaccines provide protection

Negative About the Economy?

Most Americans are not feeling good about the state of the U.S. economy. Even as numerous indicators suggest the economy is doing remarkably well in the post-pandemic era, poll after poll has shown that consumers don’t view the economy in the same light. After reaching a four decade high of 9.1 percent in June of 2022, inflation has eased significantly, falling to 3.4 percent as of April of this year. However, as inflation improves, Americans are still grappling with a rapid increase in prices.

Scientists Worry about a Feral Swine Bomb

Wild hog populations have grown substantially over the past four decades and can be found in nearly three dozen states. The hogs, originally introduced back in the 1500s by early Spanish colonists, cause roughly $1.5 million per year in agriculture damage. USDA estimates there are six billion wild hogs in the country now and the population is rapidly expanding. In addition to damaging farm land and threatening livestock and pets, wild hogs are known to carry nearly 40 parasites and over 30 viral and bacterial diseases including hepatitis, tuberculosis, leptospirosis, Brucella and pseudorabies.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”  ~  John F. Kennedy

“America is another name for opportunity.”   ~   Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”  ~  Barack Obama

“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.”  ~ George William Curtis