R-CALF focus on man and animal
R-CALF: Focus of litigation to both human and herd health
March 25, 2005
BILLINGS, Mont. - The following statement should be attributed to R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard:
"The worst thing for the U.S. beef industry would be for the United States to turn itself from a country where bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has never been found in the domestic herd (despite testing almost 300,000 head of U.S. cattle) into a country where BSE is known to exist because of the importation of millions of Canadian cattle - some of which even attorneys for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have described as 'high-risk.'
"R-CALF has used litigation as a last resort to protect both humans and cattle from possible exposure to the BSE problem in Canada.
"The National Meat Association (NMA) has used short-sighted, eleventh hour legal tactics in San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to attempt to reverse a federal judge's critical decision on March 2 to keep the Canadian border closed to imports of live cattle and additional beef products until the merits of our case can be heard.
"NMA's actions demonstrate that organization is more concerned about profits than the safety of consumers and cattle, while the arguments R-CALF presented to U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull were built around the idea of protecting not only human health, but herd health.
"The best way to get Japan and South Korea to buy USA beef again - and the best way to re-establish cattle and beef trade with Canada - is for USDA to start protecting consumers and the beef industry, and stop kowtowing to the Administration's trade politics.
"USDA's idea - and the idea of the multi-national packers - that lowering U.S. import standards to allow Canadian beef products into the U.S. will somehow cause major export customers like Japan and Korea to reopen their markets to the United States is illogical and irrational.
"Since 2003, the Japanese have told us they don't want any beef from the United States unless it can be guaranteed that it is not derived from Canadian cattle, and is properly marked as originating from the United States.
"Why, then, aren't the big packers willing to implement country-of-origin labeling (COOL)? If our government would stop ignoring the requests of some of our biggest export markets, whether it's labeling or testing for BSE, big packers and small packers alike would see an increase in business.
"Another positive result of meeting customer demands likely would be a big improvement in our relationships with those countries."
R-CALF: Focus of litigation to both human and herd health
March 25, 2005
BILLINGS, Mont. - The following statement should be attributed to R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard:
"The worst thing for the U.S. beef industry would be for the United States to turn itself from a country where bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has never been found in the domestic herd (despite testing almost 300,000 head of U.S. cattle) into a country where BSE is known to exist because of the importation of millions of Canadian cattle - some of which even attorneys for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have described as 'high-risk.'
"R-CALF has used litigation as a last resort to protect both humans and cattle from possible exposure to the BSE problem in Canada.
"The National Meat Association (NMA) has used short-sighted, eleventh hour legal tactics in San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to attempt to reverse a federal judge's critical decision on March 2 to keep the Canadian border closed to imports of live cattle and additional beef products until the merits of our case can be heard.
"NMA's actions demonstrate that organization is more concerned about profits than the safety of consumers and cattle, while the arguments R-CALF presented to U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull were built around the idea of protecting not only human health, but herd health.
"The best way to get Japan and South Korea to buy USA beef again - and the best way to re-establish cattle and beef trade with Canada - is for USDA to start protecting consumers and the beef industry, and stop kowtowing to the Administration's trade politics.
"USDA's idea - and the idea of the multi-national packers - that lowering U.S. import standards to allow Canadian beef products into the U.S. will somehow cause major export customers like Japan and Korea to reopen their markets to the United States is illogical and irrational.
"Since 2003, the Japanese have told us they don't want any beef from the United States unless it can be guaranteed that it is not derived from Canadian cattle, and is properly marked as originating from the United States.
"Why, then, aren't the big packers willing to implement country-of-origin labeling (COOL)? If our government would stop ignoring the requests of some of our biggest export markets, whether it's labeling or testing for BSE, big packers and small packers alike would see an increase in business.
"Another positive result of meeting customer demands likely would be a big improvement in our relationships with those countries."
