While the shortage of rain and dry conditions have and continue to wreak havoc on our nation’s farmers and livestock and poultry producers, there was one good thing that emanated from this summer’s crippling drought: a brighter light was shone on the federal requirement that diverts much of the nation’s dwindling corn crop into fuel.

The proposed Modernization of Poultry Slaughter Inspection rule will better protect the public from foodborne illnesses by reducing reliance on old-fashioned visual and sensory inspection and moving to prevention-oriented inspection systems based on actual risk to consumers. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences, the General Accounting Office and USDA have established the need to modernize the poultry inspection program.

It has been well documented just how important the chicken industry is to the vibrancy of the whole U.S. economy. But the industry’s growth potential, and thus its economic potential, is in gaining increased access to foreign markets.

The sunset of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and import tariff and the publishing of USDA’s long awaited Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration final livestock marketing rule are significant developments that will have major impacts on the U.S. broiler industry.

USDA and EPA should follow the president’s executive order for agencies to protect promote safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth. USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration proposed rule would cost the poultry and meatpacking industries billions of dollars with no benefit to anyone but plaintiff’s lawyers. The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing a comprehensive regulatory framework in the Chesapeake Bay region that promises to be a large economic burden on farming in the Chesapeake watershed.