June 16, 2006

 

US producers blame USDA for failure to re-open beef exports 

 

 

Beef producers have berated the USDA for failing to reopen export beef markets 3 years after the product was banned in its major markets.

 

Producers said Congress and the USDA have refused to correct the problems that resulted in the loss of these markets.

 

USDA is delaying exports to South Korea because the government agency is insisting that South Korea accepts beef from Canadian cattle, said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) represents thousands of US cattle producers on domestic and international trade and marketing issues.

 

Beef from Canadian cattle is processed in some US beef plants.

 

This insistence by USDA puts the interests of the few meatpackers who want to slaughter Canadian cattle over the rest of the US cattle and beef industry, said Bullard.

 

South Korea has said it does not want beef from Canadian cattle and the USDA's refusal to comply shows that the packers have too much influence over USDA, Bullard charged.

 

USDA's policies are hurdles that plague the profitability of the US cattle industry, said R-CALF USA President and Region V Director Chuck Kiker.

 

USDA prematurely rushed to reopen the US market to Canadian cattle and beef long before the agency had restored the lost confidence resulting from the US mingling Canadian beef with US supply, Kiker said.

 

The US allowed Canadian imports of beef in July last year.

 

USDA's overzealous efforts to convince the world that Canadian cattle and beef are as safe as US cattle and beef despite scientific evidence otherwise is disconcerting to US cattle producers, Kiker said.

 

Canada has detected more mad cow cases than the US under far fewer tests, and unlike the US, Canada has detected multiple cases of mad cow in much younger cattle that were born well after 1997, when Canada implemented its feed ban, said Kiker, adding that this proves Canada's feed ban has not been effective in stopping the spread of the disease.

 

USDA also adopted a cavalier attitude towards the two cases of mad cow disease discovered in Canada this year when it claimed they could be explained by factors other than feed and were not cause for concern about under 30 month beef and cattle from Canada.

 

Bullard said USDA then argued in court the fact that the US has discovered a case of mad cow disease in a 12-year-old cow shows that the US is at the same risk category and therefore it should allow Canadian imports.

 

Now, a year later, USDA said it knew both domestic cases were rare strains of BSE, said R-CALF USA Vice President Max Thornsberry.

 

It appears USDA has withheld and manipulated key scientific information in an attempt to further its political goals, Thornsberry said.

 

If the USDA had announced the US strains were different from those from Canada, meat plants would not have mixed Canadian and US cattle together, and markets would have been re-opened long ago, he said.

 

Furthermore, despite calls from the markets to label the country of origin on beef, USDA and Congress have refused to implement the law passed in the 2002 that would have ended the practice of commingling US beef with foreign beef.

 

In addition, markets that have partially lifted their bans on US beef do not allow ground beef, and most do not allow bone-in beef.

 

However, not only does the US accept ground beef and bone-in beef from Canada, it also allows the US to import live Canadian cattle to be slaughtered in the US and then to be commingled with US beef.

 

To have lower standards for cattle and beef imported into the US than the US is subject to for products the US export is an inappropriate and inconsistent policy, Kiker said.

 

The fact that USDA is preventing individual farms from testing for mad cow disease themselves to expand their markets points to disregard for the well-being of independent US cattle producers, he said.

 

USDA's policies benefit a few multinational meatpackers but undermine the reputation of the US cattle industry, Kiker said, adding that without the ability to differentiate their products, the reputation of US beef would be tied to the weakest production standard of its competitor.