Agriculture inspectors may be cut from state budget

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(Host) State food safety inspectors are slated to be laid off, as the Douglas administration tries to balance the budget.

But lawmakers say the inspectors protect public health and should be kept on the job.

They’re not the only ones against the plan.

VPR’s John Dillon has more.

(Dillon) Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are fighting the proposed cuts. Lawmakers say it doesn’t make sense to lay off the inspectors who work with farmers and slaughterhouses to keep the food supply safe.

Matt Bedia has a more personal perspective. 

In 2003, Bedia started work as an inspector for the Agriculture Agency. But then his National Guard unit was activated and Bedia was sent to war. He returned seriously wounded from a mortar attack. And now his job is one of 320 that may be eliminated.

(Bedia) “I’m a survivor, got hit three times there in Iraq with mortars. Survived it. Some of our boys didn’t. I figured if they don’t get me, this ain’t going to get me. But I just can’t quite understand the reasoning behind it.”

(Dillon) Bedia was raised on a dairy farm and understands the challenges of trying to make a living from the land. He says the state needs dairy inspectors and animal health specialists to work with farmers.

(Bedia) “You know, you got to have your enforcers. It’s like if you went and got rid of the state police. Who would be enforcing rules of the road, and the speeders and stoplight runners and everything?”

(Dillon) Governor Jim Douglas says it was not an easy decision to include the state agriculture inspectors on the list of potential job cuts. But the administration says federal officials and inspectors working for dairy co-ops could make up the regulatory gap.

And Douglas says the cuts can be avoided if state workers making more than $30,000 a year agree to a 5% salary cut.

(Douglas) “We’ve offered some ideas to the union that would involve pay cuts that are very modest and that would allow us to keep those inspectors and other people on the job. So it’s in the hands of the union now. We hope that they’ll come back with a favorable response so we don’t have to make those tough choices.”

(Dillon) But the House and Senate Agriculture Committees want the administration to look   elsewhere as it trims the budget.

Windham Representative Carolyn Partridge chairs the House Agriculture Committee. She says the inspectors are needed more than ever to help slaughterhouses and farmers expand local food production.

(Partridge) “We know of at least seven people who are interested in starting slaughterhouse facilities or other processing facilities in the state, which our state workers are already working with. And it would be a critical hit to our economic future, and in particular our agricultural economic future, to not have a state meat inspection program.”

(Dillon) The administration wants to cut 12 positions at the Agriculture Agency, including two meat inspectors and two animal health specialists like Matt Bedia. Bedia says he was stunned when he learned his job may be eliminated.

(Bedia) “You know, at first you’re kind of numb from it. Then you get PO-ed. Then you get real PO-ed. And then the stress starts. I mean this has put a lot of stress on our family.”

(Dillon) Bedia’s war injuries left him 70% disabled. He doesn’t want to quit working, but he’s not sure what other jobs he can find.

(Bedia)“Granted I could stay at home and work for the next two years catching up on stuff, repainting the cow barn and getting things cleaned up and building. But it doesn’t bring in the mortgage payment, either.”

(Dillon) Bedia says his job is important, because he and other specialists are the first line of defense if a disease like avian influenza breaks out in Vermont.

The legislature is considering raising fees on some food processors to avoid some of the cuts.

For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.

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