WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is on the path of reviewing government regulations, and a special task force with USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue at the wheel may help agriculture regulations take precedence.

 

The task force was formed the day after Perdue started in his position about six weeks ago and will spend the next few months studying all aspects of government oversight and their  impact on rural communities. The Farm Foundation organized a forum last month to specifically discuss regulations on farms, at which the speakers were cautiously optimistic changes would benefit the ag industry.

Mark Scholl is president of J&M Scholl, Inc., a family agriculture holding company that includes a grain farming operation, an export grain business, participant in wind farm and real estate holdings. He said regulations don’t just impact agriculture directly, but indirectly.

An increase in regulations has caused an already lengthy process to get products approved to take even longer, at about 11 years today compared to nine years estimated in 2000. The increased time has increased costs, he said. Organizations are hesitant to agree to start a process that will take so long when the employees agreeing to the process may not plan to be in their current positions more than a few years.

An additional regulatory burden comes from the global marketplace. Scholl explained even if a company gets something approved for use in the United States, a change in regulations in Canada may cause more delays in the process.

These delays can lead to complications. Insects can become resistant to pesticides, for example. Other products are being tested for regulations but can’t be used, so approved products that are no longer working properly get used in higher amounts, he said.

“It has driven costs up. Today, I spend about twice what I would have 10 years ago,” he said.

School said protecting the environment is important, but it is time to revisit regulations. “The first thing we need to have now is a system that not only safely and efficiently safeguards our farmers, but our consumers, in whatever they’re doing,” he said.

Dr. Mike Strain, DVM, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, said there are regulations still in effect in some places that are outdated, such as the regulation for an acre of buffer along railroad tracks so wood- and coal-burning locomotives would be less likely to cause fires.

Reviewing regulations will give government agencies a chance to determine what needs to be changed, what is working as planned, possible impacts, benefits and costs and what the consequences are for each regulation. 

 

“I’m excited about it and I think this is a great opportunity to move the economy forward and also take a hard look at everything we’re doing and do it in a better way,” Strain said. Rebeckah Adcock, senior advisor to Perdue and the USDA regulatory reform officer, said the agency has not been a priority in more than a century. She hopes the task force can help prioritize the USDA and update policies. 

 

Already there are suggestions for changes, but changes to regulations might cost money and the department needs to find the money before changes can be made. “They all understand, including the career staff, that there are better ways to do what we’re doing and what we’re delivering,” she said.