Public Being Misled on Canadian Border Issue
(Billings, Mont.) – The following statement should be attributed to R-CALF USA President and Founder Leo McDonnell, who also is a Montana rancher and owner of one of the largest seedstock sources in North America:
"It's unfortunate that Washington-based columnist Jim Wiesemeyer – who writes Inside Washington Today – failed to check his facts and sources before publishing on March 15 an article titled 'Japan Tells R-CALF Their Actions are Delaying Resumption of American Beef Buys.'
"Wiesemeyer and others have falsely insinuated that R-CALF met with Japanese officials and that an R-CALF representative was told that 'R-CALF's actions will actually delay the re-opening of the Japanese border'.
"R-CALF has not met with any individuals or groups who officially represent the government of Japan.
"R-CALF USA obtained an unofficial transcript of a Japanese news conference on March 17th by Japanese Under-Secretary Ishihara with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
"Part of the unofficial translation of that news conference indicates: 'Japan has been consulting with the government of Canada at working group level meetings. We have been asking both the U.S. and Canada to take equivalent measures to ours, then we will decide if Japan will resume beef imports from Canada or not, regardless of whether the issue between the U.S. and Canada is resolved or not.'
"Again, it is unfortunate that there are those in the media who start such false rumors, but it seems like this 'BEEF Enquirer' type of reporting has become acceptable in some circles."
"No credible food-safety groups, nor any credible science-based groups have supported this non-sense, that relaxing or liberalizing our import standards to Canada will help the United States in opening up the Japanese export market.
"Why would they? Food-safety assurances, precautions, and risk mitigations have never been built around increasing the exposure to known contaminated sources – in this case Canadian live cattle.
"This whole issue has become something of a 'Beef Gate,' as we look at the government's mishandling and deception, as noted by USDA's Inspector General.
"However, what's even more interesting is that even Canada continues to maintain a beef-import ban on all other countries that have had a case of BSE.
"R-CALF is asking for nothing different than what Canada has demanded of other BSE-affected countries."
(Billings, Mont.) – The following statement should be attributed to R-CALF USA President and Founder Leo McDonnell, who also is a Montana rancher and owner of one of the largest seedstock sources in North America:
"It's unfortunate that Washington-based columnist Jim Wiesemeyer – who writes Inside Washington Today – failed to check his facts and sources before publishing on March 15 an article titled 'Japan Tells R-CALF Their Actions are Delaying Resumption of American Beef Buys.'
"Wiesemeyer and others have falsely insinuated that R-CALF met with Japanese officials and that an R-CALF representative was told that 'R-CALF's actions will actually delay the re-opening of the Japanese border'.
"R-CALF has not met with any individuals or groups who officially represent the government of Japan.
"R-CALF USA obtained an unofficial transcript of a Japanese news conference on March 17th by Japanese Under-Secretary Ishihara with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
"Part of the unofficial translation of that news conference indicates: 'Japan has been consulting with the government of Canada at working group level meetings. We have been asking both the U.S. and Canada to take equivalent measures to ours, then we will decide if Japan will resume beef imports from Canada or not, regardless of whether the issue between the U.S. and Canada is resolved or not.'
"Again, it is unfortunate that there are those in the media who start such false rumors, but it seems like this 'BEEF Enquirer' type of reporting has become acceptable in some circles."
"No credible food-safety groups, nor any credible science-based groups have supported this non-sense, that relaxing or liberalizing our import standards to Canada will help the United States in opening up the Japanese export market.
"Why would they? Food-safety assurances, precautions, and risk mitigations have never been built around increasing the exposure to known contaminated sources – in this case Canadian live cattle.
"This whole issue has become something of a 'Beef Gate,' as we look at the government's mishandling and deception, as noted by USDA's Inspector General.
"However, what's even more interesting is that even Canada continues to maintain a beef-import ban on all other countries that have had a case of BSE.
"R-CALF is asking for nothing different than what Canada has demanded of other BSE-affected countries."
