House Agriculture Committee concurs on bill banning packaging in garbage fed to pigs

The House Agriculture Committee voted 17-0 to concur in Senate Bill 414, which would prohibit packaging materials from being included in garbage fed to swine in Montana.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Morgeau, told the committee the measure is intended to ‘‘keep this stuff out of our food’’ and to reduce potential contamination of pork products. ‘‘This just sends a message to them in Montana, you know, keep that stuff out of our food and, keep doing the great work that you guys do across the agricultural industry,’’ Morgeau said.

A nut graf: supporters and informational witnesses said the measure is aimed at reducing risks to animal and human health from improperly processed food waste and from pig exposure to packaging materials. The state veterinarian said disease transmission, not packaging alone, has been a central concern in Montana’s existing garbage-feeding rules.

Tawny Szymanski, state veterinarian with the Montana Department of Livestock, told the committee, ‘‘my experience here in Montana in regards to garbage feeding is we have had instances where small producers will go to grocery stores, salad bars type settings to pick up leftovers and bring those back and feed them to their pigs. And so they're not always really careful with packaging.'' She said the original bans on garbage feeding were driven largely by concern about diseases such as African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease, which can survive in improperly processed meat products.

Sponsor remarks and committee discussion emphasized that the bill focuses on the commercial side of garbage feeding and does not affect a person who feeds only their own household garbage to swine. Senator Morgeau described finding online footage showing commercially ground packaged breads and other packaged foods being fed to pigs and said Montana was among a small number of states that did not explicitly ban packaging in such feeds.

Committee staff clarified the standard effective-date practice: general bills typically take effect Oct. 1 and fiscal-impact provisions are counted from July 1; the committee record showed no separate effective-date language in the bill itself. The committee did not identify a fiscal note during the hearing.

Vice Chair Minor moved that Senate Bill 414 do pass; Ms. Shirley summarized the bill for the record as ‘‘an act ... prohibiting packaging materials from being included in garbage fed to swine.’’ The committee conducted a voice vote and the clerk reported 17 voting in favor and 0 against. The committee’s action was recorded as concurrence in the Senate bill. Proxy votes recorded in the hearing record include Representatives Thain, Lynch, Sullivan, Romano and Field voting in favor by proxy.

The sponsor and others indicated Representative Tillman would carry the measure as a House-carried bill. The hearing record closed with the committee scheduling no immediate amendments and noting the bill will proceed through standard legislative steps after concurrence.

Ending note: The committee received no proponents or opponents in person or online beyond the informational testimony from the state veterinarian and recorded no amendments; the bill now moves forward with the committee’s concurrence.