Area U.S. senators support beef ban
Monday, March 7, 2005 12:35 PM PST
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| Assocaited Press file photo
A polled Hereford bull peers over the fence in the yards at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Jan. 18, 2005. When rumor of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak among Kansas cattle hit the commodities trading floor in Chicago three years ago, prices plummeted. The U.S. Senate recently voted to keep the border with Canada closed from beef imports. |
Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
ONTARIO - Oregon and Idaho lawmakers voted with the majority of the U.S. Senate Thursday to block a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to resume imports of Canadian cattle and beef products.
A similar resolution has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives but has not reached a vote.
The imports were to have resumed today.
The import process was stymied by a preliminary injunction from a federal judge, ruling in a lawsuit filed by R-CALF USA, a stock producers organization.
U.S. cattle producers and some lawmakers oppose the reintroduction of Canadian beef into the U.S. market because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy - or mad cow disease. Cases of the disease continue to turn up, alarming some cattle producers and beef lobbyists. Many critics also assert there is evidence Canada has not been fully enforcing rules against using animal proteins in cattle feed.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a statement, said random compliance tests turned up animal proteins in 41 out of 70 samples of supposedly "vegetarian" feed.
"Both for health and consumer confidence, we need to make absolutely sure that our beef supply isn't tainted with exports that don't meet adequate safety standards." Wyden said.
Additionally, Wyden spokesman Geoff Stuckart said Friday, the senator is also concerned the United States Food and Drug Administration asserts there is a danger in importation of Canadian beef and beef products while the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains there is not.
Stuckart said Wyden will also continue to work toward implementation of country of origin (COOL) labeling for meat. Advocates of COOL say the issue of mad cow disease makes the need for labeling even more urgent.
Also voting to stop the importation of Canadian beef was Oregon's other senator, Republican Gordon Smith. "He (Smith) would like to have the border reopened but still has questions regarding mad cow disease - how to make sure the health and safety of Americans are protected," Smith's spokesman, Chris Mathews, said.
In a statement, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said he wants to make sure the science is right and, while the Canadians have made progress, he is still skeptical the science supports allowing Canadian beef back into the U.S.
Mike Tracy, Craig's spokesperson in Boise, said one of Craig's requirements - to support reopening the United States to Canadian beef - is that foreign markets for U.S. beef be reopened at the same time.
Those markets were closed to U.S. producers with the discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state. However, that animal was also traced to a herd in Canada.
Craig also supports country of origin labeling, Tracy said. However, "He (Craig) has concerns on the implementation of the law and provisions being written by the U.S.D.A.," Tracy said. One concern, Tracy said, is the COOL rules might be too cumbersome or almost impossible to implement.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "