Thursday, December 22, 2022

CHS: US Faces Vet Shortage

Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith penned this column. 

The United States is blessed with one of the safest, most abundant and most affordable food supplies in the world, but it’s not a blessing invulnerable to threats. The ongoing pandemic, extreme weather events around the world and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for instance, have contributed to supply chain disruptions and rapidly rising food costs.

And here’s another serious challenge that confronts the U.S. livestock and poultry industries: a severe shortage of food-animal veterinarians in rural areas.

This shortage threatens public health, food safety, food security and the economic growth of communities that depend on agriculture, and we should use the opportunity of the upcoming debate on the 2023 Farm Bill to tackle the problem before it worsens.

Veterinarians are a critical link in the food supply chain. They are on the front lines of treating and preventing the spread of animal diseases, keeping our food safe and helping ensure that diseases don’t jump from animals to humans.

Private-sector veterinarians work with individual farmers to protect the health of the farmers’ livestock, enabling them to maintain strong businesses. Public-sector veterinarians work across a number of government agencies where they inspect meat and poultry products, monitor for foreign animal diseases and enforce animal welfare laws.

new report commissioned by the Farm Journal Foundation, however, found that only 3 to 4 percent of new veterinary graduates focus on food animal medicine, a significant decline from 40 years ago when about 40 percent pursued this area of study. As a result, more than 500 U.S. counties face a shortage of food animal vets. In my home state of Mississippi, as in many other states, we now have counties without a single large animal veterinarian.

Veterinary students today see higher earning potential in working with companion animals, such as dogs, cats and other pets. Faced with paying off high levels of student debt and equipping a veterinary business, they opt for these better income prospects in urban and suburban areas over the lower incomes and more demanding workloads that come with rural veterinary work.

To help protect our food supply, we must do more to support veterinarians, including strengthening incentives for work in rural areas. As part of its work on the Farm Bill, Congress should expand the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, the flagship federal grant program to help pay off the educational loans of veterinarians who agree to serve in rural shortage areas. Today the VMLRP helps fill positions in only a fraction of the nation’s underserved areas. Its impact is diminished because awards are subject to a federal withholding tax, meaning that 37 percent of the dollars appropriated to this program go right back to the U.S. Treasury instead of toward relieving the student debt of rural vets.

The bipartisan Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act (S. 2215), which I co-sponsored, would eliminate taxes on programs that encourage vets to practice in rural and underserved areas, just as medical doctors are exempt from withholding on federal grants linked to their working in rural health-care shortage regions.

Congress should also adequately fund and administer programs that offer business support to veterinary practices in rural communities. We should look at how to improve the Veterinary Services Grant Program, which supports education, training and practice enhancements such as equipment purchases for veterinarians in shortage areas.

Finally, Congress needs to work with veterinary schools to enroll more students from rural backgrounds who have an interest in serving their own communities. Supporting training opportunities for rural and underserved students would help increase student retention and mirror successful medical school programs that benefit rural applicants.

As we’ve seen in the past year, every link in our food supply chain is important, and challenges that affect one part of the system can create negative consequences for everyone — farmers, producers, processors and consumers. We need to act now to maintain safe, affordable food supplies for all Americans by ensuring a healthy pipeline of rural food animal vets.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are one more short on the coast as well

Anonymous said...

There are two kinds of farmers providing food animals, the small private farmer and the big corporate meat provider. The shake-out is very real and it began with black farmers but continues to now touch all small farmers. Support services including veterinary care are necessary but keep shrinking. Mom and Pop will move to the city...

Anonymous said...

CHS is a communist!

Anonymous said...

I thought we were gonna make meat from plants and make energy from wind and sun in the future.

Anonymous said...

There are far fewer small farms than there were 50 years ago. The Feds decided to pay land owners to grow pine trees. There are far fewer children being raised on farms. Most of the students at MSU's Vet School are female and have never set foot on a farm. They want to doctor on Labradoodles and Siamese cats.

Anonymous said...

Less cattle, less cattle farting, which, apparently, is a big deal for the blue state asshats.

Anonymous said...

Trying to distract from her vote for the omnibus spending bill. She is a RINO.

Anonymous said...

10:29 believes in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.

Anonymous said...

We need to get rid of her.

Anonymous said...

Free tuition for prospective vets in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Anonymous said...

“We need to get rid of her.”, if you really think it matters, who is in D.C., @10.29 isn't the only one that believes in fairy tales. This country is too far gone to vote our way out.

Anonymous said...

1:54 And the other moron…..

Anonymous said...

I was talking to someone the other day and we touched on the subject of how we are adversely represented in Washington. We have Wicker who is a do nothing, Smith who only speaks about agriculture, and a fellow who has more pull than both of them who represents a good portion of the “hand out” crowd in Mississippi (Thompson) who was tied to the Republic of New Afrika and Edwin Taliafero, Who were tied to the murder of a former Judge’s Dad who happened to be a policeman But we don’t say nothing about that because that’s the past. We need strong leadership and we do not have it. Hyde smith ..or whoever her hyphenated name is needs to go. It’s a shame where we are right now, honestly. And you do know that Lamar Adams scammed the attorney Roger Wicker and that’s how he got caught. So, that shows what intelligence he has.

Sol Juette said...

David prayed three times a day, but he knew eventually he was going to need to pick up a few rocks.

Anonymous said...

Apparently, anyone can now be a statewide politician in Mississippi. And apparently anyone is. I fully agree with the poster who said Wicker is a do nothing. It is hard for "nothing" to be an understatement, but with Wicker it is. I have met him on a few occasions. If you want to imagine what it is like, think of talking to a mannequin. The scary thing is that pols are a reflection of their voting populace.

We don't have a prayer.

Anonymous said...

"...animal veterinarians..."?

As opposed to what other kind?

This Campfire Girl wants to be Secretary of Agriculture so badly, she's gone bat-shit crazy.

Anonymous said...

Food animal veterinarians are for animals we eat,

Pet veterinarians are for animals we don't eat.

Get it?

Anonymous said...

Small animal vets charge so much for routine services that responsibly owning a pet today is a luxury. We have some horses and donkeys and are fortunate to have a local large animal vet who will come to our farm. We administer the vaccination shots and de-wormer medicine ourselves. Our chickens just fend for themselves. But it is true that we need more food animal vets to ensure a safe food supply.

Kingfish said...

Yup. Especially dentals. When I started finding out what dentals are in other states, I was shocked at how cheap they are.

Anonymous said...

6:08 - Nope, I don't get it. The words 'animal veterinarian' were used. Not pet or food animal. In vet school you learn to work with and on large and small animals, pets and 'food'. Any pet vet will gladly emasculate your bovines in exchange for the work-product.

Anonymous said...

Translation: Ms. Airhead wants some of that free federal pork to pay for veterinarian student tuitions. You know, those kids who are the spawn of her major contributors.

Anonymous said...

nice stenography.

CHS also flipped the bird at IVF parents & children:

“ Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Tuesday blocked a unanimous consent request to pass a bill that would have set federal protections for IVF and other fertility treatments whose future remains uncertain in the post-Roe era.”

truly the Party of Life

link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/20/republicans-block-ivf-fertility-bill-roe

Anonymous said...

December 23, 2022 at 10:19 AM, I do believe your post is misleading.

Anonymous said...

Of all the women in Mississippi, this is the one Bryant appointed.

Anonymous said...

That woman needs to catch a fast train south at the earliest possible opportunity. She's as much of an embarrassment as Bennie.


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