World Grain - March 2018 - 88

FEATURE: IPPE 2018 PACKED WITH CONTENT, PEOPLE

Richard Sellers reflects on 27-year career with AFIA
In his 27 years with the American Feed Industry Association
(AFIA), Richard Sellers said he has seen the industry
consolidate, and grow more technical and fast paced.
"By and large the changes have been mostly technical
and fast paced," said Sellers, senior vice-president of public
policy and education, who will be retiring at the end of
2018. "There have been a lot of consolidations. I've seen a
lot of people come and go."
Sellers said he had a group of odd jobs that led to another,
eventually bringing him to AFIA in 1991. After college at the
University of Memphis, he spent two-and-a-half years with
the Peace Corps in Nepal, teaching vocational agriculture.
He taught families best agricultural practices and was
involved in poultry science, working with a small egg-laying
operation and learning about nutrition, feed formulation and
vaccination.
He enjoyed that work so much that following the Peace
Corps, Sellers received a master's degree from the University
of Arkansas and started working on his doctorate. He
worked for Winrock Livestock Research and Training Center
and then took a regulatory job for seven years.
Sellers joined the AFIA in October 1991 as director of
feed control and nutrition and was promoted several times
up to his current position.
He remembers waiting two weeks for paper copies of
the Federal Register, which are now available daily online.
"The electronic revolution has had an impact on us. We
frequently get quoted and asked questions while bills are
transpiring," Sellers said. "We often get quoted into the
congressional record."

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Likewise, the industry has become more technical and
specific, with new technology and innovative ingredients,
all of which must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
"They take more and more time because they are more
and more technical, and more and more are coming to the
market," he said. "Companies get a little bit upset by the two
to three years it takes and the $1.7 million that they lose."
But now, under President Trump, there's a chance some
of those burdens may be lessened. During the Obama
administration, Sellers said he added three staff members,
two of whom he didn't have a budget for, to keep up with
new regulations.
"We were really struggling to keep up with the demand,"
Sellers said. "We wrote hundreds of pages of comments to
the final proposed rules that came out of FSMA."
With the election of Trump, Sellers said he has put
together a "regulatory revolution wish list."
"Here we are a year later and we've made a lot of
progress," he said. "USDA has made more than FDA has,
and we're waiting for things to happen. In the FDA there's
still a lot of holdover from the previous administration,
and we're slowed down by that. But we are getting some
positive signs that some of the changes we're requesting,
like opening up the rulemaking in the FSMA and removing
some of the electronic records and signature requirements,
are being considered. We've got three more years to go,
who knows what will happen after that."
Highlights of his career with the AFIA include a few acts
such as the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act,
1994, which allowed veterinarians to prescribe extra-label
drug use, and the Animal Drug Availability Act, 1996. This
act made it so medicated feed mills could be licensed to use
any approved animal drug, rather than having to obtain a
license for each individual feed.
"It cut down enormously on the paperwork while still
maintaining feed safety," Sellers said.
Leah Wilkinson, currently the vice-president of public
policy and education, will take over for Sellers starting in
2019. Sellers he is working with her daily discussing the
intricacies of the job. She has good experience and is a
critical thinker with a good eye for detail, Sellers said.
"I have a lot of respect for her; she is a dynamo," he said.
"I have no doubt that she'll do an extraordinary job."
Sellers said he already has been approached by some
companies for retainer work, but he plans to take some
time off and enjoy his family.
"AFIA is a great place to work," Sellers said. "We have
a good voice. I remind members that FDA is not going to
call them, they're going to call me and tell me what they
need to know. If you're not a member, where are you going
to get that information. We do collectively what individual
members can't do for themselves."
March 2018 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - March 2018

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