favorable report and that such a report will lead to speedy passage of the bill by the Senate, Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, for the opportunity to present this statement. Senator CLEMENTS. You may summarize as you desire, Mr. Baker. Mr. BAKER. On May 9, 1956, I testified for the National Farmers Union in support of S. 3176 before the subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee. S. 3176 provided for compulsory poultry inspection to be carried on by the Food and Drug Administration. At that time we included in our statement a proposed amendment that poultry inspection should be made 100 percent compulsory with costs paid by the Federal Government and that the program should be transferred by law from the Agricultural Marketing Service to the Meat Inspection Service of the Agricultural Research Service and not to the Food and Drug Administration. We further suggested that farmers who dress their own poultry and sell them directly to consumers be exempted from the provisions of the law. S. 3983 includes these two proposals and National Farmers Union is in full accord with the bill as it is now written. And we urge your committee to give it your favorable consideration and recommend it to the Senate, and that it be passed by the Senate. Senator CLEMENTS. Mr. Baker, would you want at any later date to comment on some of the suggested amendments? Mr. BAKER. I would be glad to, Mr. Chairman, although we don't feel that that is necessary. If the committee would like our comments, we would be most happy to give them to you. Senator CLEMENTS. The committee would be most glad to have them, and also from all of the witnesses that have testified here today, because we will be considering new language and some new ideas. Mr. BAKER. I might add, Mr. Chairman, that our main point of view with respect to the administration of this program is the Meat Inspection Service as applied to red meat has been operating a long time under very well-established legislation; the objectives and the nature of the work are very similar to that proposed for poultry inspection. We see no particular reason for setting poultry inspection apart from all other meat inspection as a special type of activity which would not be carried out in the same way and under the same general jurisdiction and supervision. With respect to delaying this, it has in our opinion already been delayed far too long, providing for most consumers and producers the same kind of service with respect to poultry that they now get with respect to other meats has been delayed too long. Senator CLEMENTS. Mr. Baker, I thank you very much. And the committee will look forward to getting your expressions as well as those of other witnesses on the print that will be out. Any questions? Senator WILLIAMS. No questions. Senator CLEMENTS. Thank you very much. The next and final witness will be Mr. Joseph Gill, commissioner of agriculture of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, Conn. STATEMENT OF JOSEPH N. GILL, COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, STATE OF CONNECTICUT, HARTFORD, CONN. Senator CLEMENTS. You may proceed, Mr. Gill. Mr. GILL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Joseph Gill; I am commissioner of agriculture for the State of Connecticut. I am also a broiler producer. Senator CLEMENTS. You are a broiler producer in addition to your official title? Mr. GILL. Yes, sir. We produce on our farm approximately 100,000 broilers annually. And I have been in that business since 1946 when I left the service. Senator CLEMENTS. You speak from knowledge. Mr. GILL. The production of poultry meat, as a major item for our consumer's table today, has grown since the war to such an extent that a reappraisal of our inspection program relative to the wholesomeness of poultry now becomes necessary. With about 1 billion broilers being produced in the United States annually, principally in our Southern States and along the eastern seaboard, a mandatory uniform program of inspection for wholesomeness would insure wholesome, high-quality poultry for the consumer. The adoption of uniform guides and standards, such as would be provided under Senate bill 3588, would provide for uniformity throughout the country, as far as the wholesomeness of the poultry is concerned. A voluntary inspection program, with the cost borne by the industry, has been operated by the Poultry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture for the past 28 years. Over 20 percent of the poultry produced in the United States today is inspected under this voluntary inspection program. It would seem to us only logical that these people with the experience and know-how would be the proper ones to be assigned the task of administering a mandatory. program. The officials who have been administering this voluntary program have been of immeasurable help to the industry in setting guides and standards for the construction and operation of poultry processing plants in a sanitary manner. Also included in the United States Department of Agriculture's Poultry Division is a grading service which grades for the quality of the poultry. Many of the processing plants throughout the country have taken advantage of this grading service together with the inspection service and all indications are the trend of the industry is going to be toward not only inspection for wholesomeness but grading for quality, thus giving the consumer assurance, not only regarding wholesomeness but also concerning quality. It is the feeling of the poultrymen in Connecticut that such a mandatory inspection program furnished by the Federal Government and a voluntary grading program, from the point of view of administration and economy, would best be left in the same administrative division in the United States Department of Agriculture. This could be accomplished by the favorable action of the Congress on Senate bill 3588. Senator CLEMENTS. Mr. Gill, the committee is not only glad to have your views as commissioner of agriculture of the State of Connecticut, but doubly glad to have the views of one who is a long-time poultryman. When I suggested that you were speaking from knowledge, I meant that you were speaking from the knowledge that comes to one who is a producer himself. There is no witness that has appeared here this morning that hasn't spoken from knowledge. There are none who have been here who haven't made very helpful statements to the committee. Do you have any questions, Senator Williams? Senator WILLIAMS. No questions. Senator CLEMENTS. You two poultrymen have things that you might discuss at another time. Senator WILLIAMS. At another time. Mr. GILL. Mr. Chairman, I can only say that Connecticut is ready. We see no need for delaying legislation on this mandatory program any longer. Senator CLEMENTS. You mean by that, Mr. Gill, that you would be willing to see legislation enacted at this session, and if it needed some changes, since it had from now until 1958 to be put on a compulsory basis, that some changes might be made within that time? Mr. GILL. That is right; yes, sir. Senator WILLIAMS. I think it is safe to say, isn't it, that the farmers and producers of poultry feel that proper mandatory inspection at the present time would increase the value of their retail product and would help them rather than hurt them? Mr. GILL. Very definitely, Senator. The program in Connecticut is that there is no substitute for quality, and the consumer, regardless of your Federal inspection, is going to be the final inspector. We must satisfy the consumer. Senator WILLIAMS. I think that is very generally recognized by all segments of the industry. Senator CLEMENTS. Any further questions? Senator Williams? Senator WILLIAMS. No questions. Senator CLEMENTS. The committee will stand in recess until 10 a. m. tomorrow. (Whereupon, at 12: 40 p. m., the committee adjourned, to reconvene at 10 a. m, on Tuesday, June 19, 1956.) COMPULSORY INSPECTION OF POULTRY AND POULTRY PRODUCTS TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1956 UNITED STATES SENATE, The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a. m., Senator CLEMENTS. The committee will come to order. The first witness the committee will hear this morning is Congressman Lester Johnson, from the Ninth Congressional District of Wisconsin. You may proceed, Mr. Congressman. STATEMENT OF HON. LESTER JOHNSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman, my testimony this morning will be mainly two statements by turkey growers and dressers in my district, and I would like them to appear in the record and I intend to read them to the committee. The Ninth District of Wisconsin has a very large industry of turkey growing. My home county of Jackson County raises from 50,000 to 100,000; Barron County north of the district raises a great many turkeys, and other counties, but not as large as the 2 mentioned. I am first going to read the statement sent me by B. L. Murch, Chippewa Turkey Farm, New Auburn, Wis. That is located in Chippewa County. May I say for the record that these statements were prepared prior to the time that the two bills which are up at this time were introduced, but I think they apply. Following is the statement of B. L. Murch: As a turkey raiser and dresser for the past 30 years some things are clear to me that would not be clear to one without this experience. Antemortem examination of each bird at the plant could only be suggested by some novice. It would be good on the farm where the bird is growing unmolested. There, if he is not feeling good, he shows it. Scare him, haul him, and handle him, he could be nine-tenths dead, and he would not show sickness, except by a fever thermometer. Getting a thermometer reading on 10,000 birds a day is as practical as the whole idea of antemortem examination at the plant. The dressed bird with a fever is easily detected by the flesh color. 63 The idea that a veterinarian is the only one capable of detecting diseased fowl is also wrong. All the work done by the veterinarians could be done by any man or woman given sufficient training by the inspection department, the same way they made graders and sanitary inspectors for New York dressed birds. The only examination that would require a veterinarian would be taking cultures and laboratory examination. Just visualize a bird every second passing before a man and you get a practical idea of the way this veterinarian is operating. Anyone trained for the work can inspect the flesh color, the finish, and examine the entrails of each bird as it passes by. The important thing is that someone under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture be held responsible that no diseased birds are packed. He should be licensed and bonded and well paid for his work. I do not know of any advantage to be gained by either the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Pure Foods and Drugs being responsible for this work, but certainly only one of the two departments is necessary. The other statement is by the Badger Turkey Industries, of which Wallace H. Jerome is general manager and Orvin W. Hanson is secretary-treasurer. This is a small, independent business firm located at Barron, Wis., and Wallace H. Jerome started out raising turkeys as a 4-H Club member when he was a lad on the farm, and he has developed it until it is quite an industry. His statement reads as follows: We have been operating a turkey processing plant here in Barron for many years and we were one of the very first plants in Wisconsin to enter into Federal grading and Federal inspection programs on a voluntary basis with the United States Department of Agriculture. The cost of these programs is quite high but we have been fortunate in having quite a large volume to support these costs and we feel that the consumer is entitled to the protection afforded to them by such programs. We know that it will be difficult for small plants to have mandatory inspection unless the major cost of such a program is borne by the Government through taxation. We are definitely in favor of mandatory inspection to protect all consumers and the fact that we have been under voluntary programs all these years should prove that point. We do feel, however, that mandatory inspection should definitely be kept under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture rather than the Pure Food and Drug Administration because we feel that the United States Department of Agriculture has had the training to administer such a program better and that they have a much better understanding of the problems of the industry through long association with it in the past. The present legislation which has been introduced into both Houses (commonly referred to as the Priest bill) calls for mandatory inspection to become effective January 1, 1957, and also calls for antemortem as well as postmortem inspection. This would not give plants which have not been operating under the voluntary programs now in effect sufficient time to remodel their plants and make other necessary changes by that date. The United States Department of Agriculture has not been able to secure enough veterinarians to perform only postmortem inspection in the past and they say that it would be impossible to secure veterinarians to perform both antemortem and postmortem inspection for the great number of additional plants that would be affected by such an early date. We in industry are of the opinion that antemortem inspection should be performed only when an outbreak of disease is present and that it would be very difficult to perform satisfactorily even under normal conditions, especially in plants which process chicken broilers. We have been informed that the American Farm Bureau Federation has prepared a new bill for introduction into both Houses of Congress which also provides for mandatory inspection of all poultry and poultry products. The effective date would not be until July 1, 1958, and would provide for postmortem only except in cases of outbreaks of disease. This bill would place the administration of the program under the United States Department of Agriculture and has several other good features too numerous to mention here. That finishes my statement. I also wish to state for the record that I received a telegram from the Trask Turkey Farm, located at Black River Falls, Wis. They take the same position as that of Mr. Murch and Mr. Jerome. |