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Speakout: On Canadian beef - trust but verify
By Ken Salazar
March 28, 2005
Late last week a bipartisan group of Senators - led by many of the senators representing the Rocky Mountain states - voted to halt the Department of Agriculture's premature plan to reopen the U.S. border to Canadian cattle. I was proud to cast a vote on behalf of this effort because in the face of new positive tests for mad cow disease in Canada it is prudent and right to protect Colorado's ranchers, farmers and consumers.
My family has been ranching since time immemorial, and still does today.
I know that American beef is the best and safest in the world, and I can think of nothing I would rather have for dinner.
As I have made clear to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, foreign leaders and my colleagues in the Senate, we need to fight to open more markets for our farmers and ranchers. It is too bad that Congress has not done more to open markets until now. I want the Canadian border reopened as soon as is possible and prudent.
An open border is good for our meatpackers and it is good for our farmers and ranchers, both in Colorado and across the nation.
The vote was simple and straightforward: a bipartisan signal that our government and the Canadian government must do more to end the threat of bovine spongiform encephalopathy posed to America's farmers and ranchers.
Consider the following: Since the Department of Agriculture announced its intention to reopen the Canadian border, two more Canadian-born cows have tested positive for mad cow disease. One of those cows was born after 1997, the date that Canada stopped feeding its cows feed that included animal protein.
Why is this important? One of the principal ways mad cow disease was passed from England during the outbreak there that resulted in the slaughter of 5 million head of cattle was through feed that included animal protein.
U.S. veterinary teams were not sent to Canada to investigate Canada's efforts to stop mad cow disease until nearly a month after the administration decided to open the border. I am in favor of working closely with and even trusting our Canadian friends to get rid of mad cow disease, but as President Reagan said in a different context, "trust but verify." We need to verify what steps have been taken in Canada on BSE. For example, Canadian health inspectors have found that 40 percent of Canada's own feed lots apparently have tested positive for animal proteins!
At the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued import alerts concerning the presence of animal tissue in vegetable feed products that Canadian feed companies have attempted to export to the U.S. We need to determine whether these facts pose a risk to our American cattle industry before we open the border.
Some have observed that there is no evidence of any BSE-infected beef entering the U.S. food chain. But that is precisely the purpose for and result of the current import ban. In short, the ban is doing the job it was intended.
Here are four simple, common-sense steps the USDA should take right now so we can open our border with Canada as soon as possible, safe in the knowledge that we have done everything to ensure the health of our domestic livestock industry. The USDA must:
• Conduct on-site inspections and monitoring of feed systems in foreign countries to ensure compliance with the highest food safety standards.
• Provide for increased surveillance and oversight of the domestic feed industry to ensure producers are complying with the FDA ban on feeding ruminants to ruminants.
• Plan for and announce to American consumers how we intend to monitor our border when it is opened. How are we to know, for example, which of the 1 million cattle that cross the U.S.-Canada border daily are only 30 months old, which are acceptable and pose a minimal risk of mad cow disease, and which are 31 months old, which pose an unacceptable risk of mad cow disease.
• Make our trading partners, especially Japan and South Korea, understand that they need to reopen their markets to American beef. Remember that Japan closed its borders to American beef precisely because of that country's fear that Canadian beef imported into the U.S. would contaminate American product.
The 25,000 cattle operations in Colorado that have about 2.4 million head of cattle are right to expect that we open our border to Canada through a thoughtful and sound effort - and not simply on an arbitrarily chosen date.
Ken Salazar is the junior U.S. senator from Colorado.
By Ken Salazar
March 28, 2005
Late last week a bipartisan group of Senators - led by many of the senators representing the Rocky Mountain states - voted to halt the Department of Agriculture's premature plan to reopen the U.S. border to Canadian cattle. I was proud to cast a vote on behalf of this effort because in the face of new positive tests for mad cow disease in Canada it is prudent and right to protect Colorado's ranchers, farmers and consumers.
My family has been ranching since time immemorial, and still does today.
I know that American beef is the best and safest in the world, and I can think of nothing I would rather have for dinner.
As I have made clear to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, foreign leaders and my colleagues in the Senate, we need to fight to open more markets for our farmers and ranchers. It is too bad that Congress has not done more to open markets until now. I want the Canadian border reopened as soon as is possible and prudent.
An open border is good for our meatpackers and it is good for our farmers and ranchers, both in Colorado and across the nation.
The vote was simple and straightforward: a bipartisan signal that our government and the Canadian government must do more to end the threat of bovine spongiform encephalopathy posed to America's farmers and ranchers.
Consider the following: Since the Department of Agriculture announced its intention to reopen the Canadian border, two more Canadian-born cows have tested positive for mad cow disease. One of those cows was born after 1997, the date that Canada stopped feeding its cows feed that included animal protein.
Why is this important? One of the principal ways mad cow disease was passed from England during the outbreak there that resulted in the slaughter of 5 million head of cattle was through feed that included animal protein.
U.S. veterinary teams were not sent to Canada to investigate Canada's efforts to stop mad cow disease until nearly a month after the administration decided to open the border. I am in favor of working closely with and even trusting our Canadian friends to get rid of mad cow disease, but as President Reagan said in a different context, "trust but verify." We need to verify what steps have been taken in Canada on BSE. For example, Canadian health inspectors have found that 40 percent of Canada's own feed lots apparently have tested positive for animal proteins!
At the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued import alerts concerning the presence of animal tissue in vegetable feed products that Canadian feed companies have attempted to export to the U.S. We need to determine whether these facts pose a risk to our American cattle industry before we open the border.
Some have observed that there is no evidence of any BSE-infected beef entering the U.S. food chain. But that is precisely the purpose for and result of the current import ban. In short, the ban is doing the job it was intended.
Here are four simple, common-sense steps the USDA should take right now so we can open our border with Canada as soon as possible, safe in the knowledge that we have done everything to ensure the health of our domestic livestock industry. The USDA must:
• Conduct on-site inspections and monitoring of feed systems in foreign countries to ensure compliance with the highest food safety standards.
• Provide for increased surveillance and oversight of the domestic feed industry to ensure producers are complying with the FDA ban on feeding ruminants to ruminants.
• Plan for and announce to American consumers how we intend to monitor our border when it is opened. How are we to know, for example, which of the 1 million cattle that cross the U.S.-Canada border daily are only 30 months old, which are acceptable and pose a minimal risk of mad cow disease, and which are 31 months old, which pose an unacceptable risk of mad cow disease.
• Make our trading partners, especially Japan and South Korea, understand that they need to reopen their markets to American beef. Remember that Japan closed its borders to American beef precisely because of that country's fear that Canadian beef imported into the U.S. would contaminate American product.
The 25,000 cattle operations in Colorado that have about 2.4 million head of cattle are right to expect that we open our border to Canada through a thoughtful and sound effort - and not simply on an arbitrarily chosen date.
Ken Salazar is the junior U.S. senator from Colorado.
