> To: Regulatory Analysis and Development
PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71
4700 River Road Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238
[email protected]
Re: Docket No. 03-080-1
To the above named agency:
This is regarding Docket No. 03-080-1, the matter
of reopening beef trade with Canada. I am writing to
urge you not to reopen the trade border with Canada.
I understand that USDA has released a proposed rule to
open the border with Canada. This proposed would allow
the importation of certain live cattle, ruminant
products and by-products by designating Canada as a
"minimal BSE risk country."
How can it be considered
"minimal risk" when we know that there have been two
cases of mad cow in Canada in the last few months?
I currently raise cattle in partership with my father,and I lease cattle pasture to another and am the fifth generation of a cattle
ranching family, which has been primarily a cow/calf
operation. Opening the border will simply increase
consumer fear, hurt the beef industry and beef
consumption, resulting in fewer cattle, and fewer
cattlemen who might want to lease my land.
As a consumer, and my confidence in the beef
supply is gravely shaken. Please STOP trade with
Canada. I also hope that strict rules, laws, or
whatever it takes are implemented to STOP
unconscionable practices such as feeding animal parts
to cattle and slaughering sick ("downer") animals for
food. Such practices make me and a lot of other
consumers wonder when common sense and decency left
the inventory of the big producers and meat packers.
We have trading partners (Japan and Korea, for
example) that want the meat we send to them to be
labeled US product. Now is the perfect time, and we
shouldn't wait, to fully fund country-of-origin
labeling (COOL), because U.S. consumers deserve the
same opportunity as Japan and Korea - the opportunity
to CHOOSE U.S. beef if they (we) so desire.
Also, the closing of the Canadian border and the
corresponding rise of cattle prices in the U.S. just
shows how the Canadian cattle were captive supplies
and were being used to manipulate U.S. cattle markets!
Since the Canadian cattle have stopped coming over
the border, captive supplies have decreased and our
cattle prices have risen.
Since more and more cattle under 30 months of age are
being discovered as BSE positive animals (Japan has
now found two - one at 23 months and one at 21 months
- while Great Britain has found over ten cases under
30 months of age in the last 18 years), and since the
World Organization for Animal health (OIE) does not
consider Canada a "minimal BSE risk country" as APHIS
is proposing (because Canada has not had its feed ban
in place for the required 8-year period), we need our
rules, laws, and trading practices to be updated NOW
to protect our food supplies.
PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71
4700 River Road Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238
[email protected]
Re: Docket No. 03-080-1
To the above named agency:
This is regarding Docket No. 03-080-1, the matter
of reopening beef trade with Canada. I am writing to
urge you not to reopen the trade border with Canada.
I understand that USDA has released a proposed rule to
open the border with Canada. This proposed would allow
the importation of certain live cattle, ruminant
products and by-products by designating Canada as a
"minimal BSE risk country."
How can it be considered
"minimal risk" when we know that there have been two
cases of mad cow in Canada in the last few months?
I currently raise cattle in partership with my father,and I lease cattle pasture to another and am the fifth generation of a cattle
ranching family, which has been primarily a cow/calf
operation. Opening the border will simply increase
consumer fear, hurt the beef industry and beef
consumption, resulting in fewer cattle, and fewer
cattlemen who might want to lease my land.
As a consumer, and my confidence in the beef
supply is gravely shaken. Please STOP trade with
Canada. I also hope that strict rules, laws, or
whatever it takes are implemented to STOP
unconscionable practices such as feeding animal parts
to cattle and slaughering sick ("downer") animals for
food. Such practices make me and a lot of other
consumers wonder when common sense and decency left
the inventory of the big producers and meat packers.
We have trading partners (Japan and Korea, for
example) that want the meat we send to them to be
labeled US product. Now is the perfect time, and we
shouldn't wait, to fully fund country-of-origin
labeling (COOL), because U.S. consumers deserve the
same opportunity as Japan and Korea - the opportunity
to CHOOSE U.S. beef if they (we) so desire.
Also, the closing of the Canadian border and the
corresponding rise of cattle prices in the U.S. just
shows how the Canadian cattle were captive supplies
and were being used to manipulate U.S. cattle markets!
Since the Canadian cattle have stopped coming over
the border, captive supplies have decreased and our
cattle prices have risen.
Since more and more cattle under 30 months of age are
being discovered as BSE positive animals (Japan has
now found two - one at 23 months and one at 21 months
- while Great Britain has found over ten cases under
30 months of age in the last 18 years), and since the
World Organization for Animal health (OIE) does not
consider Canada a "minimal BSE risk country" as APHIS
is proposing (because Canada has not had its feed ban
in place for the required 8-year period), we need our
rules, laws, and trading practices to be updated NOW
to protect our food supplies.