FARAD remains open, for now

Washington — The financially threatened Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) garnered a few extra months of life support, but with drastic cutbacks.

FARAD was scheduled to shut down in October, but received $75,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and $50,000 from the Food and Drug Administration, which will keep it running through the spring, according to Dr. Mark Lutschaunig, director of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Governmental Relations Division.

The AVMA sought funding for FARAD for several years, lobbying Congress, the USDA and the FDA to support the databank used by veterinarians, livestock producers and others to ensure that drug, environmental and pesticide contaminants don't end up in meat, milk and eggs.

The infusion of funds means FARAD can continue manning the phones for those who call with questions, but several layoffs were made and the group is operating with a skeleton crew, Lutschaunig says.

"It will keep going at a really reduced level for now," he says. "In the long term, the funds FARAD received were not nearly enough for what it needs to keep functioning. ... It's an important program. I'd hate to see it shut down."

Funding for FARAD is administered by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service and is operated through the combined efforts of North Carolina State University, the University of Florida and the University of California-Davis.

Though FARAD's $2.5 million funding request was authorized in this year's Farm Bill, AVMA says the USDA never incorporated the funding in its budget, and Congress did not provide the emergency funding or the agricultural appropriations bill that would have served as FARAD's lifeline.