U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced legislation today that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, from expanding imports of Canadian cattle until the agency implements a system that allows consumers to see in which country their meat was produced.
National Farmers Union President Tom Buis called the latest case of BSE "very troubling."
"It becomes even more disturbing when you consider that USDA has proposed to re-open the Canadian border and allow live cattle imports born after March 1, 1999 and beef of any age into the United States," said Buis. "The Canadian border should remain closed until mandatory COOL is implemented and Canada can demonstrate that its problem is under control."
Speaking for the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, R-CALF USA, CEO Bill Bullard agrees.
From his office in Billings, Montana, Bullard said, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed its responsibility to adequately protect the U.S. cattle herd, the U.S. beef supply, U.S. export markets and U.S. consumers from Canada�s widespread problem with bovine spongiform encephalopathy."
"Despite a very limited amount of testing, six cases of BSE have been confirmed in Canadian cattle born after Canada implemented its feed ban in 1997 � despite USDA�s unsupported insistence that the Canadian feed ban has been effective in preventing the spread of the disease," Bullard said.
"Why is it that U.S. farmers and ranchers have to pay the expense of a lawsuit in order to force USDA to do the job that hard-working taxpayers have already paid the agency to do," asked R-CALF USA Region I Director Margene Eiguren. "There is something wrong with our government when economic trade goals are allowed to continually trump legitimate health and safety concerns."
This is all fine and dandy. I only have one problem with all of this. The powers that be in Washington want to tie COOL and NAIS together to make things extremely difficult for cattle producers. You all know how I feel about NAIS so the thought of resurrecting mandatory NAIS as part of the COOL plan frightens me. This doesn't need to happen but all these people pushing for COOL because of the Canada BSE issue will probable doom us all. Action taken in the heat of the moment usually results in problems down the road and this needs to be considered here. Remember the Patriot Act was a put into effect immediately following 9/11 and now we look back on it as maybe the wrong response to a crisis situation.
If I really thought COOL would help American cattlemen I would probably be more for it but since I don't the issue doesn't really resonate with me. The thing I am afraid of is COOL is going to cost cattle producers a lot of money to implement, and if they tie NAIS with it that will be the case, which will then be a net money loser for me. Hysteria will drive us over this cliff before people can think. Just watch it happen folks. The cliff is right ahead, can we avoid it?
History is a vast early warning system. Norman Cousins
