Food Safety in Arizona: Budget Cuts Could Put Your Food Safety at Risk

 
By Tim Dunn, Arizona Farm Bureau Vice President, and Chair of the Advisory Council for the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
Desperate for a balanced state budget, some have recently suggested that we waive a wand and make the Arizona Department of Agriculture (ADA) disappear. These same people suggest that ADA subsidizes Arizona farmers and ranchers and that it’s done out of general fund monies.
 
The sanguinity of that magic wand is floating everywhere in our imaginations as we look at ways to cut costs in a state that’s hemorrhaging from burdening budget obligations.
 
But to ax the ADA would be to put our food safety at risk. Here’s why.
 
Let’s walk through the facts -- those troubling items, when one has a predisposed conclusion in search of a rationale:
 
  • ADA has less general fund support than when it was established in 1991. It is a state cabinet agency that functions without a deputy, legislative liaison, public information officer, procurement officer and rules writer. It has streamlined or eliminated functions in major ways as to its interdiction, containment and resolution of animal and plant disease. These efficiency efforts have been ongoing for a decade and have resulted in one of the most streamlined and efficient state department budgets around.
 
  • The ADA provides no general fund subsidies, supports or payments to Arizona agricultural producers – not one thin dime. The ADA does no marketing, trade missions or promotion for Arizona agriculture, unless you define the advancement of regulatory credibility as “promotion.” The ADA Director does spend a little time on logistical border issues that can only be handled government-to-government. There are some pass through block grants from the federal government administered by the agency, but these involve no general funds and carry their own sources for administrative costs.
 
  • The ADA does provide training to farmers, ranchers, nursery growers and dairies to acquaint them and their employees as to compliance with a myriad of federal and state laws. This training used to be general funded and now it’s mostly sourced from non-general funds. Again, a function that’s important for the public’s safety and well being.
 
The ADA is a regulatory agency. You might argue that it’s a regulatory agency that exists solely for the promotion of Arizona agriculture, but let’s examine this just a little closer:
 
  • Where a specific agricultural industry has requested marketing and grading services (non-food safety) regulation, the industry (farmers and ranchers) pays for it. Arizona agriculture has a history – if we create the problem, we pay for its resolution. We have a history of creating our own, self-funded food safety programs that benefit all of us.
 
  • ADA licenses and monitors certain pesticide handling and uses. This is a service to the public for groundwater regulation and it is not all general funded. There are user fees involved. The protocols for licensing and monitoring the agriculture industry is so that the state can ensure a safer environment and setting for all Arizonans.
 
  • The federal government, individual states and foreign countries have various disease requirements for shipping plant, crop, livestock and livestock products. The integrity of these parameters is met with user fees and general fund components. There is a public benefit to prevention of livestock diseases or plant pests and diseases from entering this state. And then the state’s commerce for export can be dramatically impacted if we lose pest or disease-free status. Again, the whole intent is to ensure a safe food supply for all of us and a viable industry for the stakeholders.
 
  • The ADA does meat and milk inspection under federal auspices and certification – food safety rightly demanded by the public.
 
  • General funds and fees are used to develop and maintain expertise on livestock and equine theft. Just as general funded law enforcement handles auto theft -- animal theft must be handled.
 
  • The ADA does provide consumer protection to farmers for quality and performance levels of certain inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and feeds. This does promote Arizona agriculture, but it is not general funded.
 
Without regulation, we can grow it, but we cannot ship it. Without regulation agricultural commerce does not flow. Without regulation we are out of business. Without regulation we cannot absolutely ensure the public’s right to have access to healthy and abundant food.
 
Agriculture regulation must be close to home. We have experience with federal quarantines where they have entered this state and needlessly destroyed businesses. A healthy ADA can be a bulwark to such tactics and ensure that our food supply is safe and abundant.
 
 
Editor’s Note: Dunn is a specialty crop farmer in the Yuma County area. The Advisory Council is a Governor appointed, five-member board of agricultural representatives who serve on a voluntary basis.
Key words: Food Safety in Arizona, Food Safety, arizona agriculture, agriculture in arizona, arizona farmers and ranchers.