The law would allow the Agriculture Secretary to closely monitor vulnerabilities in the US food and agricultural supply chains.
On March 11, a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers introduced legislation to secure a supply chain of US food and agriculture from the threat posed by the Chinese communist regime.
“Communist China’s strategic management of communist China over key sectors of our food and agriculture supply chain poses a serious national security threat,” Ricketts said in a statement. “Loss of access to key inputs can lead to lower productivity, raise food prices and damage food security.”
Ricketts added that the law “strengthens and protects these supply chains and reduces dependence on foreign enemies (US).
Additionally, the report includes recommendations from the Agriculture Secretary on how to mitigate potential China’s threats to these supply chains, providing legislative and regulatory measures to reduce barriers to increasing domestic production.
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The bill provides a list of produce that is deemed important to the United States. These include ingredients used in feed, such as agricultural machinery, fertilizers, vitamins and amino acids, crop protection chemicals, seeds, and other ingredients used in feed.
The annual report will be submitted to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Agriculture Committee.
“Food security is national security and, like any other security risk, we need to deal with threats to our food supply chain,” Slotkin said in a statement. “Conclusion: We need to make sure that the American agricultural supply chain is safe and stays at home.”
“Iowa farmers told me that if China decides to block access to these important inputs, our food production would be at risk.”
“We share many lawmakers with the Trump administration’s concerns about reducing China’s impact on US food supply,” AFIA president and CEO Constance Cullman said in a statement.
“Securing the US Farm Act will give federal decision-makers a clearer shot at protecting the United States from potentially devastating animal welfare, food, or animal food security or economic outcomes.”
According to this paper, China also played an important role in the global amino acid market at the time, contributing to more than 62% of global production. In particular, it produced 77% of lysine, 91% of threonine, 84% of valine and 27% of methionine.
Ricketts and Hinson each introduced similar bills on the issue in previous legislatures, but neither bill was finalized.
