From the desk of President Ron Cerri:

It seems that anymore when there’s the slightest little problem, whether real or perceived, some people and some lawmakers think there needs to be a new law or regulation to protect us. Bureaucrats and regulators are usually more than happy to accommodate because it justifies their existence. Regulators have a vested interest in creating more regulations; it usually means an increase in staff and more power and authority. Politicians like creating more regulations because it makes them feel like they’re solving problems and actually doing something. Most federal regulatory agencies are dominated by lawyers and academia that have seldom, if ever, worked in the private sector.

Recently we’ve begun to hear from Washington D.C. that some politicians are finally recognizing that American businesses are being overly regulated, and this over-regulation is actually the reason why the economy isn’t rebounding and unemployment is so high.  Finally realizing this is a good first step, but the second step is a much harder one to take—reducing and eliminating the burden of excessive rules and regulations.  What we’ve got to understand is that this goes against the very nature of government. Government is not very good at relinquishing authority or making itself smaller. I can’t come up with a single example of where a federal regulatory agency willingly threw out a rule or regulation. Take for example the wolf recovery plan. Even after it was considered a success and wolf populations were greater than the plan originally called for, the U. S.  Fish and Wildlife Service still can’t bring itself to turn the program over to the states like it had promised it would or let a livestock owner shoot a wolf to protect his private property without fear of prosecution. Even though some politicians in Washington D.C., even President Obama, are saying there’s too much regulation, the agencies responsible for making and enforcing these rules are not listening.

Here are some examples of new rules to come down on agriculture recently that the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association has provided comments on:

• The Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyard Administration (GIPSA) has issued a new rule that requires all video/internet auctions, dealers order buyers, sale barns, packers  and grain dealers to only weigh livestock or grain for commerce on a scale that has been tested and certified within six months of its usage. This will mean that if you sell cattle that are weighed off your scale in the fall and also again in the spring, you will need to have your scale checked twice a year.  If you only use it in one of those seasons, you will need to have the scale inspected sometime within that six month period.  In Nevada we have only been getting our scales tested and certified every two years, and the state has found it difficult to get that accomplished.  Now the federal government is mandating the testing be done twice a year or no less than once a year, at a time when states are having a hard time providing even the most basic services. The state will probably end up certifying private companies to get this unfunded mandate accomplished and that will mean an additional cost to businesses.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued new regulations regarding dust caused by agriculture. This will be extremely burdensome on farmers and ranchers everywhere in the U.S. but especially in the arid west. The people that made this rule obviously haven’t been out west in the summer when we haven’t had a rain in five months and every cow trail, and even the road into the ranch, has turned to bug dust. For sure they haven’t combined grain or put up hay or seen the wind blow the dust off the Black Rock Desert. When the wind blows so does the dust and we all know that the wind blows daily from the south except on those days when it blows from the north.
• The EPA has a new regulation that requires a certain percentage of our fuel be made from ethanol. This one really makes no sense to me.  At a time when fuel prices are upwards of $4.00 per gallon, the government still has to subsidize ethanol makers because they can’t economically compete with fossil fuel. Food prices have risen because they are taking corn that would have been used for food and using it instead to produce ethanol.  According to David Pimentel, a professor of agriculture at Cornell University, if you figure the amount of fossil fuel it takes to grow and process ethanol, 70% more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy you actually get from ethanol. Case in point—processors burn fossil fuel to make ethanol because it’s not economically feasible to use ethanol.

Our country has become dependent on other nations for its fuel and many of the goods we all need and use today. American farmers and ranchers have always been able to produce more than enough food needed to feed our nation, as well as enough to sell and give away in times of need to the rest of the world. I hope our government leaders are wise enough to make sure that our nation never has to depend on another country to feed us.    

Quote of the month by Ronald Reagan:

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:

If it moves tax it.

If it keeps moving regulating it.

And if it stops moving subsidize it.”