SDSGA & Guy E. Ham Beef Industry Scholarships
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God Bless America!
New USDA Rule to Relax BSE Safeguards Unacceptable to U.S. Cattle Industry;
Consumers Should Vehemently Oppose Agency’s Action
BILLINGS, MONT. (December 30, 2004) The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) on Wednesday announced that publication of the final rule on reopening
the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005,
and then on March 7, 2005, after a 60-day review by Congress, live Canadian
cattle and additional Canadian beef could begin entering the United States.
During the review period, Congress has the opportunity to modify the rule, or
refute it in whole. The rule is titled: "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy:
Minimal Risk Regions and Importation of Commodities."
The new rule represents a wholesale abandonment of the United States’
historically successful, science-based standard of disease prevention in favor
of an unproven standard of disease management that has not been accepted by U.S.
export customers.
"As a result, the United States will become a dumping ground for products
unacceptable to more than 30 international beef-consuming countries," said
Leo McDonnell, president and founder of R-CALF USA. "For USDA to force upon
U.S. consumers the risk and burden of managing another country’s BSE problem
goes well beyond any reasonable obligation that U.S. citizens should have to
their foreign trade competitors."
"USDA’s failure to address in its Final Rule many legitimate and
scientific public-health concerns and risk analysis concerns raised by U.S.
cattle producers and U.S. consumers is unacceptable," said Bill Bullard,
R-CALF USA CEO. "USDA’s new rule sets a dangerous precedent, as it
exposes the U.S. cattle industry and U.S. consumers to increased, unknown BSE
risks, while simultaneously eroding international confidence in U.S. beef."
The new rule is identical in key substantive regards to the first proposed rule
issued by the agency in November 2003.
"Rather than attempt to meaningfully address the concerns of R-CALF USA and
the other 3,378 individuals and organizations that submitted public comments on
the agency’s rule, USDA has spent the past 13 months and the vast majority of
the rule’s 316 pages rationalizing its actions, despite genuine concerns
raised by U.S. citizens and organizations," McDonnell said.
The new rule still offers as its scientific "risk assessment" a
qualitative judgment that the risk is "low," without explaining what,
specifically, this undefined term means, or whether Japan and other countries
use the same definition. The Final Rule still uses as a primary basis and
reference for this judgment a report by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, a
report that as its own authors recognize and state, does not address issues
specific to Canada that are the subject of USDA’s final rulemaking.
"USDA continues to rely on a risk assessment that doesn’t even claim to
address the risk to human health of BSE-infected cattle or BSE-tainted meat
entering the U.S. from Canada," McDonnell explained.
There are numerous other unaddressed concerns. For example: R-CALF USA expressed
concern with the agency that because of relatively small sample sizes in testing
for BSE in Canada, the rule affords preferential treatment to the Canadian
cattle industry over the United States’ cattle industry and subjects U.S. and
international consumers to unknown and unnecessary risk.
R-CALF USA pointed out that, at that time, the U.S. had tested 153,274 cattle
for BSE in 2004, compared to Canada’s testing of only 15,817 cattle for the
disease, despite the fact that BSE has been found only among cattle of Canadian
origin, and not among cattle of U.S. origin. In its Final Rule, USDA
rationalized the inequities regarding Canada’s limited testing by stating if
Canada tests 30,000 cattle for BSE next year, Canada will then be testing at a
rate equivalent to that of the United States. But, the rule does not require
Canada to test 30,000 cattle. Instead, the rule would require Canada to test no
more than a total of 336 cattle in 2005, thereby reducing even the current
protections afforded to the U.S. against introducing BSE into the U.S. from
Canada.
In four separate submissions of formal comments to USDA on the proposed rule
(totaling more than 350 pages), R-CALF USA informed the agency of 47 specific
deficiencies in USDA’s rule. These deficiencies were substantiated and
supported by multiple scientific BSE-research studies, all of which were
completed after USDA began its rulemaking process.
"The agency has ignored all the new findings on BSE and has disregarded all
but one of our 47 concerns," Bullard noted. "The only deficiency USDA
addressed in the new rule was the inadequate marking system for Canadian cattle,
and as recommended by the U.S. cattle industry, the agency did adopt a permanent
brand as an option of marking Canadian cattle."
The new rule will cause the U.S. food supply to be flooded with products
produced in a country that does not even meet the minimal standards imposed by
the international disease standard-setting body, the World Organization for
Animal Health (OIE). Additionally under the Final Rule, beef products on the
shelves of U.S. merchants will not be required to be produced under conditions
that meet BSE standards established in other countries where BSE is known to
exist, such as the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan. As a result,
U.S. consumers will be afforded less protection against BSE than are consumers
in those nations. In each of these BSE-affected countries, there are mandatory
testing requirements for cattle entering the human food supply, a critical
safety precaution that USDA does not require of Canada.
"What consumers should find most egregious is that not only will their
grocery store shelves contain imported meat produced under substandard
production requirements not even tolerated by other developed countries, but
also, consumers will not be given the information that would allow them to avoid
such substandard products," McDonnell pointed out. "The rule does not
require beef products derived from Canadian cattle to be marked with a
country-of-origin label showing the product(s) came from Canada."
"Rather than acknowledge the seriousness of Canada’s BSE problem, or
require Canada to correct the deficiencies that allowed BSE to infect the
Canadian cattle herd in the first place, USDA’s rule represents an attempt to
‘define away’ Canada’s BSE risks and responsibilities," said Bullard.
A key problem with USDA’s new rule is that it removes Canada from the list of
countries where BSE is known to exist, and when the rule is implemented, Canada
will no longer be included under the following official heading contained in the
federal regulations concerning BSE: "Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
exists in the following regions: . . ." There is no scientific
justification for this regulatory change.
"This is a poorly written rule designed to deceive the public and to mask
the serious nature of Canada’s BSE problem, as well as to avoid the United
States’ international responsibility to help Canada eradicate the disease from
its herd so it can safely resume trade in beef and cattle sometime in the
future, McDonnell said. "There is no scientific justification for the USDA
making such a move."
"The agency has clearly demonstrated its resolve to ignore and disregard
the science-based concerns raised by industry participants and the agency’s
action threatens to devalue the U.S. cattle industry," he continued.
"This is unacceptable, and we intend to pursue every available remedy to
prevent USDA from implementing this Final Rule that would diminish the quality
of the imported meat supply in the United States."
# # #
R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of
America) represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on domestic and
international trade and marketing issues. R-CALF USA, a national, non-profit
organization, is dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability
of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA’s membership consists primarily of
cow-calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and feedlot owners. Its members –
over 11,000 strong – are located in 46 states, and the organization has over
60 local and state association affiliates, from both cattle and farm
organizations. Various main street businesses are associate members of R-CALF
USA. For more information