House passes additional ag inspector funding

Foreign animal disease response, including to ASF, crucial for protecting domestic hog industry.

Jacqui Fatka, Policy editor

December 18, 2019

2 Min Read
Beagle brigade
Agricultural inspectors and the Beagle Brigade in U.S. airports are the first line of defense against African swine fever-tainted meat products getting into the United States in international travelers’ luggage. Liz Wagstrom, National Pork Producers Council chief veterinarian, credits these teams with doing a thorough job, but the NPPC has requested an additional 600 inspectors and 60 more beagles.Farm Progress/Sarah Muirhead

About the Author(s)

Jacqui Fatka

Policy editor, Farm Futures

Jacqui Fatka grew up on a diversified livestock and grain farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications, with a minor in agriculture education, in 2003. She’s been writing for agricultural audiences ever since. In college, she interned with Wallaces Farmer and cultivated her love of ag policy during an internship with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, working in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Capitol Hill press office. In 2003, she started full time for Farm Progress companies’ state and regional publications as the e-content editor, and became Farm Futures’ policy editor in 2004. A few years later, she began covering grain and biofuels markets for the weekly newspaper Feedstuffs. As the current policy editor for Farm Progress, she covers the ongoing developments in ag policy, trade, regulations and court rulings. Fatka also serves as the interim executive secretary-treasurer for the North American Agricultural Journalists. She lives on a small acreage in central Ohio with her husband and three children.

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