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LEGAL/REGULATORY NEWS
R-CALF calls on Congress to reform beef import regulations
by Pete Hisey on 7/18/2006 for Meatingplace.com
Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and five congressional leaders asking that USDA and Congress address issues such as country-of-origin labeling and segregation of Canadian and U.S. cattle at feedlots and at slaughter.
Specifically, R-CALF USA is asking USDA to shelve the idea of allowing Canadian cattle over 30 months of age and beef from cattle over 30 months of age into the United States. The letter also asks USDA to rescind a rule allowing cattle and beef from cattle under 30 months into the country. Failing that, R-CALF is requesting that Canadian cattle be prevented from commingling with native-born cattle.
R-CALF Chief Executive Bill Bullard, told Meatingplace.com that with new OIE standards in place, he believes Canada is arguably in the "undetermined" category for incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
OIE has shifted from a five-tier system that assessed risk by the number of BSE cases detected per million head of cattle to a more general three-tier system: "negligible," meaning no cases have been detected in the past 11 years; "controlled," meaning effective measures such as animal feed bans and specified risk material removal have been put in place to mitigate risk; and "undetermined," which means none of the above.
"We would argue that Canada belongs in that last category," Bullard said, contending that the recent discovery of BSE in a Canadian dairy cow born four and a half years after Canada's feed ban was implemented indicates that the ban is either ineffective or inadequately enforced.
R-CALF, which is appealing a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in its ongoing lawsuit against USDA over reopening the border to Canadian product, argues that the import of animals from Canada and their subsequent commingling with native-born cattle endangers U.S. export trade with key customers such as South Korea and Japan, and lowers the value of all cattle because of the ongoing loss of those export markets.
R-CALF also is asking that in cases where U.S. beef is banned, imported beef from those markets also be banned until access is restored.
R-CALF calls on Congress to reform beef import regulations
by Pete Hisey on 7/18/2006 for Meatingplace.com
Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and five congressional leaders asking that USDA and Congress address issues such as country-of-origin labeling and segregation of Canadian and U.S. cattle at feedlots and at slaughter.
Specifically, R-CALF USA is asking USDA to shelve the idea of allowing Canadian cattle over 30 months of age and beef from cattle over 30 months of age into the United States. The letter also asks USDA to rescind a rule allowing cattle and beef from cattle under 30 months into the country. Failing that, R-CALF is requesting that Canadian cattle be prevented from commingling with native-born cattle.
R-CALF Chief Executive Bill Bullard, told Meatingplace.com that with new OIE standards in place, he believes Canada is arguably in the "undetermined" category for incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
OIE has shifted from a five-tier system that assessed risk by the number of BSE cases detected per million head of cattle to a more general three-tier system: "negligible," meaning no cases have been detected in the past 11 years; "controlled," meaning effective measures such as animal feed bans and specified risk material removal have been put in place to mitigate risk; and "undetermined," which means none of the above.
"We would argue that Canada belongs in that last category," Bullard said, contending that the recent discovery of BSE in a Canadian dairy cow born four and a half years after Canada's feed ban was implemented indicates that the ban is either ineffective or inadequately enforced.
R-CALF, which is appealing a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in its ongoing lawsuit against USDA over reopening the border to Canadian product, argues that the import of animals from Canada and their subsequent commingling with native-born cattle endangers U.S. export trade with key customers such as South Korea and Japan, and lowers the value of all cattle because of the ongoing loss of those export markets.
R-CALF also is asking that in cases where U.S. beef is banned, imported beef from those markets also be banned until access is restored.
