Oldtimer said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
OT the USDA label guarantees a product that has been inspected by the USDA. Sell to a branded program that labels your beef PRODUCT of USA
But 99.95% of all imported product is not looked at by a USDA inspector- or even a US person...This is part of the deception and the fraud...
This is one of the reason HHS secretary Tommy Thompson, during his departure speach, said that imported food products are wide open to terrorist threat.......
With an escalating World War going on and the terrorist threat of today- US consumers have the right (like most of the consumers of the world already do) to know what country the food they are making buying decisions about comes from.....
OT, isn't it a fact that the imported beef, or any other meat for that matter, must be as well, or better inspected than US beef is? Also that the foreign inspectors must be trained by US inspectors to do the job correctly? Also that there are spot checks to assure compliance and failures will result in recalls?
NO -- Maxine- In Mexico and much of South America government officials are expected to collect their salaries thru graft...These officials are the ones doing the inspecting- Not USDA employees...Don't you just wonder a little what they let slip by to make that graft :???:
Now, lets get honest with our consumers and admit to them that COOL as written does NOTHING to improve the safety of beef to the consumer. Lets tell them that we are willing to have REAL traceback of all beef to the farm of origin, with a means that will not disappear when the hide is removed.
So, you who fear packer shenanigans should ask Porker how his system can protect you from that by identifying EVERYONE as to exactly when they had control of each piece of beef and what they did that might have caused, or contributed to, any health problem.
We will have a better cattle business, price wise, when the few bad apples in the producer end of things who try to cheat by using off-label treatments or give injections incorrectly are exposed!
Stop telling the consumer that all US beef is perfect and implying that all imported is "crap", and worst of all, that COOL will do anything beneficial for thir health.
Maxine- the USDA's proposed M-ID will not trace cattle beyond the time its head comes off- and can not be used for pasture to plate anyway...Most packers are years away from being set up to follow from pasture to plate- and are fighting against that part of the concept...If you proposed to add that to M-COOL if implemented tommorrow, the packers would still oppose it...Its a smokescreen...
All beef/cattle being imported is right now identified to the country of origin- all that is not being required is for the Packer/retailer to tell the truth......
At least M-COOL would allow my family members or any consumers to decide if they want to eat that Mexican meat being inspected by an inspector that would sell his sister for $5- or beef from a higher risk BSE country like Canada....Those decisions should be left to the consumer....
Does it not bother you to promote lying to, cheating, and defrauding consumers by promoting the Packer/retailers ability to purposely and knowingly remove the labels from beef-- restamp with a USDA inspected label (when no USDA employee has ever seen it) and passing it off as a US product?
MRJ