Japan and BSE

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie;

I see this on DTN this morning;

"Penn repeated Washington's official stance that there was no scientific basis for conducting blanket testing and that resources needed for this should instead be focused on testing older cattle with a higher risk of carrying mad cow disease.

Japan, which suffered its first case of mad cow disease in 2001, tests every slaughtered cow for the brain-wasting illness.

Tokyo has been asking the U.S. to do the same before imports of U.S. beef can be resumed. Washington argues that such blanket testing is unnecessary and that additional safety measures it adopted earlier this month are enough to ensure the safety of U.S. beef."

Charlie and Melville;

In a meeting yesterday... it was made very clear to us...

that the Canadian Flag and products represented by it

have taken a major thrashing over intransigence and stubborness with continued refusal to meet safety standards the Japanese require.

This has recked much of our pork business to Japan as well we were told... this effects much more than just beef.

Japan has many traditional foods that consumers there are very happy eating... they have home grown beef with many other alternatives than red meats from North America.

The US obviously can ignore export beef markets... if they do one simple thing... keep live CDN beef out.

Obviously we are only hurting ourselves (CDN Farmers) by Not adopting Japanese standards for BSE testing... CDN Packers have taken the risk capital out of farmers for BSE... they are doing fine...

Export Trade for Alberta is the life blood of the Ag industry... we have entered a new erra... when will we smell the coffee and get on with producing the safest product in the world... backed up by proof and testing... not just words?

Does anyone really think our Government's words of comfort will change banned export markets minds (foreign consumers particularly) and reopen our markets lost to the BSE discovery?

[charliep]

I will leave for discussion.

Japan is a $2 bln/year business for the US so it is a big factor there. Negotiations as to what the Japanese require and the US is willing to provide are occurring as we speak. The point is being made both sides of the border that we are involved in a North American market and Canada is a part of this process.

A final note is the Japanese consumer has never made a decision to not purchase North American beef. The Japanese government has made this decision for them.

[cowman]

The Japanese consumer made the decision to not eat any beef unless it was tested as safe. Now they continued to eat American and Australian beef until the USA got a case of mad cow. I think it is totally appropriate for the Japanese to insist that imported product meets the same standards as their domestic product? Perhaps a really appropriate responce would be to insist that Australian beef also be tested? At the present time Australia has one of the poorest records for testing...which is probably why they are BSE free! If you test virtually nothing you will never have BSE?

[TOM4CWB]

Cowman;

You are asking a good question... and I believe most people would agree in the farming community that more testing would lead to still further cases discovered.

Which leads all the more the the logic in using a less expensive more complete test like the Japanese use... and test every animal.

We must have the self-discipline to do this... test each animal... if we are to be honest, with integrety, with the consumers of our beef products.

Is there any beef product that I can buy today, that has had the BSE test done?

I understand I cannot buy BSE Japanese tested beef... that it is banned from Canada... is this correct?

[cowman]

I believe the Canadian government still has a ban on all Japanese beef products. You see the Canadian government likes to talk a good game but are in reality just about as protectionist as the rest of the world.
The Japanese continue to operate their beef plants just as they did pre-BSE in their country, with the exception that they test ALL animals. Canadian protocols ask that all SRMs be removed before opening a border> Canada to this date has never opened a border to any meat from countries that have had a case of BSE(except to the US muscle cuts). So Canada practised the same discrimination that we complain about while ignoring the science and allowing countries that virtually do not test, to keep shipping us meat. The whole Canadian policy is two faced to the extreme.

[poorboy]

If Japan tests every animal for BSE and countries like Canada still do not let Japanese beef in, then who is to say that just because we start testing
Canadian beef for BSE that anyone is going to open the border to our product? The whole problem with testing, is that it does not guarantee that we will export any more beef!