The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is asking the Trump administration to protect the U.S. vitamin supply.
President and CEO Constance Cullman says AFIA is sounding the alarm on the nation’s overreliance on China for the supply of vitamins and amino acids used in human and animal food.
“One of the things we realized during COVID was that the vast majority of our vitamins come exclusively from China,” she said. “Over 73% of vitamins are originating in China.” She maintains that it’s a national security issue.
“When you start looking at any sort of disruptions in the supply of vitamins or amino acids, we are looking at huge implications for our production of our animals.”
Last month, a group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President Trump emphasizing why vitamins are indispensable for animal food production. Cullman says the U.S. needs to diversify its supply.
“That can be onshoring or nearshoring,” she said. “But being able to diversify that so we’re not exclusively dependent on one country.”
The lawmakers laid out several potential solutions in their letter, including increased federal investment in domestic vitamin manufacturing, an intentional national security focus on vitamin production and a comprehensive review of where other ingredient supply chain vulnerabilities exist.
Editor’s Take:
Like so many other lessons we learned during COVID, they all seem to point out that we are overly dependent on other nations, especially China, for critical components used to keep us safe and healthy. It is easy to see why AFIA and others are sounding the alarm on this trend. In this instance, the health and wellbeing of the animals we depend on for part of our food supply could be severely compromised. Raising awareness is step one, now it’s time for corrective action!
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