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Mexico Quietly Agrees To Stop Shipments To U.S. Of Beef

flounder

Well-known member
Mexico Quietly Agrees To Stop Shipments To U.S. Of Beef, Processed Poultry Over Safety Concerns

September 5, 2008 7:17 a.m. EST

Linda Young - AHN Editor Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Mexico has quietly agreed to stop shipments of beef and processed poultry to the United States after U.S. officials repeatedly raised concerns over the quality and safety of Mexican food.

The action comes less than two months after U.S. Department of Agriculture officials finally traced a U.S. salmonella outbreak to shipments of fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers grown in Mexico. It is difficult to trace illness back to the contaminated source food that caused it, so before officials traced the outbreak to Mexican peppers, they warned people away from American tomatoes, costing U.S. farmers tens of millions of dollars.

This voluntary curb on the export of Mexican meat and poultry comes ahead of any reported illnesses in the U.S. linked to Mexican meat.

"Mexico finally curbed exports of meat and poultry products from meatpacking plants with widespread safety problems, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling with American food safety regulators. A USDA audit of 11 Mexican meat plants found nearly two thirds had systemic safety problems including inadequate sanitation and government inspection procedures," Wenonah Hauter, executive director for Food & Water Watch, said in a statement Thursday. The organization is a Washington, D.C.-based non-government consumer rights group.

The group complained that despite its audit, the USDA had not acted to stop imports of questionable meat products from Mexico.

Similarly, the USDA's own data shows that problems with tainted fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers from Mexico was a longstanding problem even before the salmonella outbreak began in April.

The agency reportedly turned back dozens of cases of fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers in 2007 alone because of filth, illegal pesticides and, in at least one case, because of something poisonous.

About 84 percent of all fresh peppers eaten in the United States come from Mexico.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012185948


Mexico voluntarily halts meat shipments to U.S.
Associated Press
Sept. 4, 2008, 11:01PM


WASHINGTON — Mexico has voluntarily suspended shipments of meat and processed poultry to the United States after U.S. officials raised concerns about the quality of Mexican food processing and inspections, an Agriculture Department official said Thursday.

The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service identified systemic problems with sanitation controls and record-keeping during an annual audit that took place in Mexico between June 24 and July 31.

The voluntary suspension began Aug. 29, said Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the service. About 2 percent of beef and poultry in the U.S. comes from Mexican producers.

"Safety concerns in multiple establishments were not identified by Mexican in-plant inspection personnel, demonstrating that Mexico's system to verify its plants were producing safe food in a clean facility was insufficient," Eamich said.

She said the audit report would be posted on the agency's Web site within 60 days.

Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group, said it had raised concerns with the department in August about Mexico's meat and poultry exports.

"While we are pleased that the Mexican government decided to suspend its exports voluntarily on Aug. 29, USDA should have taken more decisive action to protect American consumers from unsafe meat imports," said Wenonah Hauter, the group's executive director.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5984603.html#Intro


Friday, August 22, 2008

MEXICO blocks Alberta cattle following the discovery of Canada's 14th case of mad cow disease


http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2008/08/mexico-blocks-alberta-cattle-following.html



TSS
 

Tex

Well-known member
How can you have a credible inspection system when you have the best government money can buy?



We have a little work to do right here in our own country in that respect.

All political donations to committee members by the industries they have regulatory power over in the House and Senate Agriculture committees should be stopped.

It is astounding that this problem hasn't been fixed by the ethics committees in the House and Senate.

We already have a USDA out of control who argue they hold the controls to truth with no effective oversight by Congress and no accountability by the executive branch.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Tex, how are those committee members, too many of whom have little personal knowledge of agriculture, supposed to be able to make fair decisions if there are no cattle groups lobbyists allowed????

How are we in agriculture supposed to be able to get knowledgeable and honest people elected if we cannot gather together to help with necessary campaign funds????

mrj
 

PORKER

Well-known member
The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service identified systemic problems with sanitation controls and record-keeping in Mexico. They better start using SSI or they will have to export to Japan or eat all of their production!
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
mrj said:
Tex, how are those committee members, too many of whom have little personal knowledge of agriculture, supposed to be able to make fair decisions if there are no cattle groups lobbyists allowed????

How are we in agriculture supposed to be able to get knowledgeable and honest people elected if we cannot gather together to help with necessary campaign funds????

mrj

How are we to get lawmakers that are not beholding to anybody if we allow them to take large sums of money from them. Do you think people who "donate" expect nothing in return?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Sandhusker said:
mrj said:
Tex, how are those committee members, too many of whom have little personal knowledge of agriculture, supposed to be able to make fair decisions if there are no cattle groups lobbyists allowed????

How are we in agriculture supposed to be able to get knowledgeable and honest people elected if we cannot gather together to help with necessary campaign funds????

mrj

How are we to get lawmakers that are not beholding to anybody if we allow them to take large sums of money from them. Do you think people who "donate" expect nothing in return?

And we keep voting these same-o same-o politicians with 20-30 years history of graft taking back into office... :???:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Sandhusker said:
mrj said:
Tex, how are those committee members, too many of whom have little personal knowledge of agriculture, supposed to be able to make fair decisions if there are no cattle groups lobbyists allowed????

How are we in agriculture supposed to be able to get knowledgeable and honest people elected if we cannot gather together to help with necessary campaign funds????

mrj

How are we to get lawmakers that are not beholding to anybody if we allow them to take large sums of money from them. Do you think people who "donate" expect nothing in return?

And we keep voting these same-o same-o politicians with 20-30 years history of graft taking back into office... :???:

I'd love to vote for a new guy if they would bring a decent one forward.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Sandhusker, how are voters to know what a candidate stands for if he has no money to get media time?

The Ag groups PAC's support candidates whom they HOPE will listen to our needs and act in ways not harmful to our businesses. There is no way for either the candidate or the contributor to assure what each "gets in return".

The campaign funds we donate give us a certain level of access to show officials how their actions affect food production. Until the current system changes, as it has over time and will in the future, we do the best we can, along with praying for more statesmen and fewer political charlatans.

mrj
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
mrj said:
Sandhusker, how are voters to know what a candidate stands for if he has no money to get media time?

The Ag groups PAC's support candidates whom they HOPE will listen to our needs and act in ways not harmful to our businesses. There is no way for either the candidate or the contributor to assure what each "gets in return".

The campaign funds we donate give us a certain level of access to show officials how their actions affect food production. Until the current system changes, as it has over time and will in the future, we do the best we can, along with praying for more statesmen and fewer political charlatans.

mrj

Politicians should not owe anybody any favors, which is exactly what happens when somebody gives them a "donation". If funding campaings is your goal, make the donations small and attach no names. Corporations should not be able to "sponsor" anything. There should be no name attached to any check. That is the problem.
 

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