NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas First District Congressman Tracey Mann is hosting the Ranking Member from the House Agriculture Committee Glenn 'GT' Thompson this week in the Big First.
The visit is in preparation for the writing of the 2023 Farm Bill. It's also a concern to both members that Ukraine's production capability for agriculture will likely be hampered by the conflict going on there.
"Ukraine has around 40 million people, but they feed around 400 million people," Mann said. "When you've got almost a third of the wheat in the world between Ukraine and Russia, the big, big question becomes what does production look like for them? How does production level dip? The concern is that would destabilize a lot of countries that they feed, a lot of those countries in the Middle East, Egypt and north Africa. The ripple effect, we don't know yet."
Supporting Ukraine is key, because it's planting time over there.
"American agricultural producers are going to have to step up and produce more," Mann said. "It's something we've done for a long time, stepping up when need be and I'm excited to see it."
Congressman Thompson and Congressman Mann are both keenly aware of the need for food security, which is why they will be visiting the under construction National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan later this week.
"It's immense," Thompson said. "Without food security, you don't have national security, you certainly don't have economic security, as well."
Mann notes that it's still going to be awhile until the handoff happens to the Manhattan facility.
"It should start to be operational in the next year or so," Mann said. "Construction's got to be completed, then it has to be commissioned and then it has to be tested, then a move has to happen. For the final move to occur, we're still a ways away from that, but we're closing in on it and it's going to be very exciting for the state."
The United States currently does not have a laboratory facility with maximum biocontainment (BSL-4) space to study high-consequence zoonotic diseases affecting large livestock. The NBAF will be the first laboratory facility in the U.S. to provide BSL-4 laboratories capable of housing cattle and other large livestock. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 75 percent of new and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic diseases which may be transmitted from animals to humans.