by Peter Shinn
Just because Japan has partially re-opened its market to U.S. beef doesn’t mean Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is dropping its lawsuit against USDA. That lawsuit aims to force the Agency to allow Creekstone to voluntarily test 100% of its beef production for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Creekstone CEO John Stewart said he’s happy about the Japanese announcement, but still wants to test all of Creekstone’s cattle for BSE. “We are committed still, after the market’s open, to getting the green light from USDA to privately test. And as you know, we have this working through the court system now,” Stewart said.
According to Stewart, Creekstone is pressing ahead with its lawsuit against USDA because its customers in Japan want 100% BSE testing. “We’re still paying attention to our customers and their request,” he said. “And specifically in Japan we know that Japanese consumers there have some pretty significant concerns about the safety of U.S. beef.”
Stewart says he doesn’t share those concerns, but does have concerns about USDA’s overall BSE testing policy. He says USDA’s position is that BSE testing isn’t about food safety, but about detecting the prevalence of the disease in the U.S. cattle herd. Stewart questions that logic. “There are a lot of scientific experts out there that would disagree, significantly disagree, with USDA on this issue, and Creekstone disagrees as well,” he said.
Stewart is particularly critical of USDA’s decision last week to dramatically scale-back its enhanced BSE testing program from 750,000 to 40,000 animals annually, a move Stewart said came “at the least opportune time” to facilitate reliable beef trade between the U.S. and Japan, and the U.S. and South Korea, too.
Creekstone first asked USDA for permission to test all its cattle for BSE two years ago, and after USDA said no repeatedly, Creekstone filed suit in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia two months ago. According to Stewart, Creekstone has filed a motion for summary judgment against USDA, and a decision on that motion could come as soon as October.