Photo courtesy of cindyaxneforcongress.com

While outbreaks of African swine fever are affecting trade markets in other parts of the world, Congresswoman for Iowa’s Third District Cindy Axne (D) is working to increase efforts to prevent it from affecting pork production in the U.S.

Axne recently helped introduce the Protecting America’s Food and Agricultural Act, a bill that would authorize U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire more agriculture specialists to facilitate the safe and secure entry of agricultural goods into the country. Axne says she wants to stop the straw from breaking the agriculture industry’s back, “Unfortunately, our agriculture community is being hurt right now with the trade war that this president can’t seem to finalize, of course with the Renewable Fuel Standard waivers, and if we have African swine fever hit the shores of this country I’m not sure what will happen to our agriculture community, it would be devastating. There is no cure for African swine fever, you can only prevent it. So our best defense is to prevent it from hitting our shores.”

This legislation would allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire 240 agriculture specialists per year until staff shortages are filled so harmful diseases like African swine fever don’t come into the country. This is a disease of pigs only and does not affect humans, therefore it is not a public health threat according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.