Task Force Meeting Covers Threats, Opportunities in the Ag Industry

Task Force Meeting Covers Threats, Opportunities in the Ag Industry

NCSL's Agriculture Task Force met during the Legislative Summit in Louisville.

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During a tour of the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, members of NCSL's Agriculture Task Force learned about interstate and international animal transportation, animal health and disease management, and more.

Legislative leaders from 18 states and Canada learned about challenges in the agriculture industry during a bipartisan meeting in early August.

The biannual meeting of NCSL's Agriculture Task Force in Louisville, Ky., brought together legislators and legislative staff for a day of local agriculture tours and policy sessions covering the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak, agriculture disasters and PFAS in agriculture.

The task force, co-chaired by Minnesota Rep. Rick Hansen (D) and Iowa Sen. Annette Sweeney (R), is made up of members from 21 states who examine state and federal agriculture policy issues. The group helps develop NCSL policy, studies critical agriculture and rural development issues, explores policy options to address these concerns, and serves as a conduit for state legislative communication with Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies. The task force also can develop and recommend policy to the appropriate NCSL standing committee to guide the conference's federal advocacy work in Washington, D.C.

"NCSL provides opportunities to state legislators to build bridges of understanding about what agriculture has to offer," Sweeney says. "Our recent meeting in Louisville … allowed for conversations and relationship building between legislators, which will allow for further conversations after the meeting concluded."

The policy sessions and subsequent discussions are key aspects of all NCSL Agriculture Task Force meetings, which aim to provide legislators with fact-based, nonpartisan information to help them develop policies tailored to their own state needs. The meeting addressed ongoing and emerging agriculture industry challenges across the country, and facilitated dialogue between attendees about concerns and potential solutions.

Participants learned about animal vaccination technologies and practices, and two state leaders provided an overview of responses in their states to the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak. Attendees learned about the economics behind agriculture disaster prevention and recovery, heard an overview of new federal agriculture disaster resources and gained insight into the educational gaps around crop insurance. An agriculture industry expert provided information about the sources, uses and life cycle of PFAS, the abbreviation for a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and used in a variety of household products and industrial processes. Legislators also shared the status of their states' 2024 ag bills.

The group toured two local facilities, the Churchill Downs racetrack and a Brown-Forman production distillery to learn about their operations. During the tours, lawmakers discussed interstate and international animal transportation, animal health and disease, facility disease management, large animal veterinarians, horse racing, crop sourcing, liquor legislation and regulations, taxation, and more.

"Our Agriculture Task Force meeting had timely, tangible topical information for legislators in Louisville to bring home to their states," Hansen says.

The task force will meet again in June 2025.

Megan Bland is a legislative specialist in NCSL's State-Federal Relations Division.