Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain says the mid-year budget cuts proposed last week by the Jindal administration could end up costing you more at the grocery store and elsewhere.
“You know, if we downsize in meat inspection, that means plants will close,” Strain warns. And meat prices will go up.
The Department of Agriculture has been told to cut $2.6-million from its spending between now and June 30, and Strain says that means he will have no choice but to reduce the number of inspectors his department employs.
“We regulate all aspects of the economy — anything bought, sold, weighed, measured, scaled, graded,” Strain explains. “That’s our job.”
Strain says he doesn’t believe his department will be able to handle everything they are constitutionally and statutorily required to do — everything from certifying the accuracy of gas pumps to making sure meat is being processed safely.
“At a meat processing facility, if our inspector is not there, it does not operate that day,” Strain states. “There can be a hundred people there to work. It does not operate that day unless we are there.”
He says other commodities will be impacted, as will the shipping industry.
“Our grain inspectors — if they don’t inspect the grain and grade the grain, the grain is not bought or sold. It does not move,” Strain declares. “It doesn’t move into the elevator. It doesn’t move onto the barges, on the trucks or onto the ships. It does not move.”
As for gasoline pumps, every one is required to be calibrated annually. Strain says if the pumps aren’t accurate, then the gas station will have to shut down.
“If there is a problem and we cannot correct it, then they will stay closed until it can be corrected,” Strain says. And fewer inspectors means a longer wait for re-inspection in order to reopen.
Strain says his biggest worry with this next round of cuts is fighting forest fires. His department is being required to surrender some of the diesel fuel they have stockpiled to use for running their firefighting equipment. Since his department is responsible for fighting fires on 18-million of Louisiana’s 27-million acres of total land, the potential for a disastrous wildfire is high.
“When we run out of fuel, what do we do then?” Strain asks. “And we will run out of fuel.”
Strain says he hopes Louisiana residents consider these statements as warnings, not threats. He says he truly wants to perform all the tasks with which voters have entrusted him.
“I am responsible for the health and safety of the citizens through the food supply,” Strain says, his face creased with worry. “We are at that thin red line, and anything you push us beyond, I am not going to be able to guarantee that we can do our constitutionally-mandated job.
“You can’t do something if there are no funds,” he adds.
The proposed cuts still have to pass muster with the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which meets Feb. 20.