A proposal to strengthen the tracking of U.S. cattle has been sent to the White House for a fast-track review, after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in California and spurred calls for a more stringent system.“We have a lot of confidence in a rule we think will work,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Friday in Washington. He said he hopes the Office of Management and Budget will approve the new animal-identification plan quickly.Routine testing recently uncovered the nation’s fourth case of mad cow disease in a dairy animal at a rendering facility in central California. The discovery spurred fresh calls for increased monitoring of the U.S. meat supply. A nationwide animal identification system that would let officials track sick livestock back to their farms of origin — and help identify other infected animals — has been promised by the Department of Agriculture since 2003, after the first BSE case surfaced. Cattle futures plummeted 22 percent in the week after the announcement, and beef exports didn’t top 2003 levels until 2010.A voluntary animal ID plan was abandoned in 2010 after some ranchers refused to participate, citing cost and concerns the proposed registry would give competitors proprietary information.The rule Vilsack referred to, which the USDA proposed in August, would require registration and tagging of livestock moved between states, with guidelines tailored to different species. It would be put in place gradually, applying first to older animals in the U.S. cattle herd.The case shows the U.S. surveillance system is working, according to the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health.
The case shouldn’t affect the U.S. status of
“controlled risk” for BSE, the Paris-based intergovernmental animal
health group, known by its French acronym OIE, wrote in an emailed
statement. “This detection demonstrates that the national
surveillance system is efficient,” the OIE said. “This case should not
have implications for the current U.S. risk categorization.” The finding of the disease before it entered the
food chain should reassure importers of U.S. beef, FAO Chief Veterinary
Officer Juan Lubroth said by phone from Rome Wednesday. “The fact that the U.S. picked it up before it
entered the food chain and the fact that they were transparent should
give more confidence to the trading partners, not less,” Lubroth said...more
2 comments:
The War on Farmers started in 1945 by Committee on Economic Development.
Traceability does nothing to prevent disease. TESTING prevents disease.
The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (1995) trumped US law. The USDA allow imports without quarantine. "Traceability" and "Risk Assessment" are the WTO replacement for the "Best food safety system in the world" The WTO rules allow multinationals to pass liability to farmers. Consumers are now disease finders instead of lab tests. Without testing corporations can slip out of liability and pass the blame back to farmers not ALLOW to do testing! However traceability is a must..
Since 1995 TB positives show WTO rules has allowed TB into the USA. In CA 10,576 TB tests were run in 1995 but was cut to 1,425 by 1999. The US now finds TB in Mexican cattle in several states. The USDA's response is to throw AMERICAN FARMERS IN JAIL! Vernon Hersberger is about to be tossed into jail for three years while our borders remain open to imported disease.
US exports 700,000 tons of beef and imports 1,500,000 tons from areas with: Naegleria fowler, Encephalitis, vesicular stomatitis viruses, Leptospirosis, Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), and foot and mouth disease. US imports 2.5 million live cattle from Canada with BSE (now in USA) from Mexico with tuberculosis (now in USA), brucellosis (now found in USA) cattle tick fever, (now found in USA) Trypanosoma cruz,, (now in USA), Bluetongue (now in USA), and Vesicular stomatitis (just found in NM horses)
Real Mad Cow story.
1. At the height of the epidemic the UK banned meat & bonemeal (M&B) in cattle feed but exported 168,000 tons of M&B and 3.2 million cattle to 36 countries. The amount rec'vd in U.S. is unknown, but at least 69 tons of M&B and 334 cattle were shipped to US. (UK warned others.)
2. Ten years later USDA banned M&B. The ban was not enforced except through a few warnings (No jail for big political donors)
3. The USA closed down testing labs since joining WTO.
4. The USDA scaled back testing from >1,000 cows to 110 per day - on recommendation of UN. (Who the heck is running the USA anyway? WTO, UN or US citizens?)
5. Creekstone was BARRED from testing for BSE (upheld in court) Less than 1% of slaughtered cattle were tested for BSE at time.
The government wants to get rid of family farms. (The fact that Mr. Andreas (ADM) was biggest political donor to both parties tells why.)
The government has finally succeeded in making farming all but illegal.
EXAMPLES
The Dollarhites, ($200/yr from bunnies) have the USDA threatening fines of $3.9 million. When Mr. Dollarhite called Washington DC he was told the USDA planned to prosecute him and his family "to the maximum that we can" in order to "make an example" out of him.
Linda Fallice stated "..USDA officials claimed in our court hearing that, The farmers have no rights. No right to be heard before the court, no right to independent testing, and no right to question the USDA."
We will follow the rest of the world. 60% of farmers in Portugal are gone, 75% in Mexico, Millions in India and corporations are burning farmers homes in Africa. The child Friday Mukamperezida was burned to death to facilitate a Multinational land grab. America is not immune. Intentional flooding of the best US farmland by the government allowed George Soros to buy out bankrupt farmers for a song.
Isn't it wonderful how the USDA managed to find a "Crisis" to implement a much opposed ruling when they CONTROL TESTING.?
"A few weeks later, Linda Faillace heard there was more information held by the USDA and used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request the data. Two weeks after the request, the FOIA revealed four hundred negative results on sheep, including additional negative tests on the four sheep that Rubenstein and the USDA claimed were positive. Davis Buckley asked the court to force the USDA to surrender their entire file, which consisted of over 1,000 pages."
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