Has the USDA gone mad?

[cowman]

On one of the American farm sites they are saying the USDA has re-approved feeding blood products and chicken litter to cattle! Are they insane? Is this supposed to reassure Japan that they have a safe and healthy product?
On this same site they claim Mexico has moved in and taken a good portion of the Japanese export market.
I wonder who gives the USDA their marching orders?

[rusty1]

On of our consultants for our packing plant told me yesterday that the USDA has ex CEO from - you guessed it. Their goal is to break Swift before the border opens. Swift is predominately in the north westUS and relyed mainly on CDN cattle.

[kato]

Now, why does that not surprise me? Must be getting very jaded after all this time.

As for Japan taking Mexican beef, how come they will take Mexican beef when they know as well as we do that there are lots of Canadian cattle in Mexico? They wouldn't take American beef for fear of having Canadian in it.

MMM.....

Could it be the Japanese are starting to think like Americans?

[jensend]

the real question is are canadians as mad as the americans? maybe somebody in the fed. gov. or cfia or cca or abp will see that we have to divorce ourselves from the americans and pursue our own initiatives. i don't want to unnecessarily criticize some of the industry leaders over the past 15 months because i think they were in one hell of a tough spot but with every development it appears to me that the onus is on us (pardon the pun) to work out of this. if we develop our own markets the american market will eventually come to us because from what i read there is real price resistance on the part of the american consumer now. participants on one american site are watching feeder prices in disbelief so feeders may take a real beating on current purchases and will want more calves to choose from.

[jensend]

by now somebody from the fed gov must have gone to the japanese and said "what will it take to get our beef into your country?". if they haven't why not? if you get that answer then we can decide if we can or want to meet their terms. rsomer says there is no guarantee the japanese will take our meat even if tested. he may be right but i would like to see hard information confirming that before we just abandon the strategy. we need to know what are their terms for trade and have some indication the bar won't move when we get there. the announcement from mexico makes me think we have been called to heel by the americans once again and boy are we getting screwed.

[jensend]

Yes it is time to ask the question. If we were to test our beef for BSE, would there be potential for sales in your country? I tried to access the Japanese Ag minister with that very question just before the election. Don't know if my letter got through. Is there anyone out there who can find us a link to the Minister of Agriculture in Japan.

I am trying real hard not to slam the ABP, CCA, and CBEF, however their words calling BIG C naive, and unorganized seem like slamming words to me. The more I learn about CBEF, the more see that this is not really a sales team. This is an agency to help people connect with potential clients in other parts of the world.
It looks to me that we need a serious sales approach to find out the potential for markets which common sense says, have to exist.

I only hope that everyone continues to press the government and industry groups to expand packing capacity immediately, and change policy in the CFIA to allow for testing for export markets SHOULD THAT NEED ARISE.

[kato]

Try.

www.meti.go.jp/english/index.html

This is the address for the Ministry of Economy Trade and industry.

They have a 'contact us' link.

[rsomer]

According to http://www.fas.usda.gov/dlp/countrypages/mxbfsit.pdf Mexico has exported beef to Japan every year at least since 1995. Mexico is rumored to have arranged a sale worth $250 million, see: http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/4/2/57390124.html Put in perspective, U.S. beef exports to Japan average $1.8 billion annually.

What has happened with blood and poulty protein is that January 26, 2004 the USDA announced a immediate removal of the exemption on blood, plate waste and poultry litter from ruminant feeds subject to a final rule. In the latest request for comments it was recognized by the USDA that the International Review Team recommended a different, broader approach to reducing the risk associated with animal feed. The USDA is now asking for comments on which approach is the best course of action. I stand to be corrected on this but I believe Canada did not ban blood and poultry protein from our feed when the USDA did in January and this most recent action from the USDA serves to further harmonize our respective industries. From a Canadian standpoint, it is encouraging to see the USDA paying heed to the International Review Team’s recommendations which also pointed out that the Washington Holstein should be viewed as a North American problem and that the U.S. should show leadership in resuming trade with Canada.

Cowman, tch..tch.. You are reading some of those trashing U.S. based farm sites, the equivalent of supermarket tabloids. If you want the facts you have to come to Agri-ville. :--)

[rsomer]

What do you know about CBEF rsomer? Is this a sales team or simply an agency to accomodate Canadian marketers looking to do business. CBEF must do some kind of potential market study work, but do they actualy complete sales?

[gwf]

This is quite interesting. Worth reading.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=6&u=/nm/20040713/ts_nm/madcow_usda_dc

[cowman]

Perhaps you are right rsomer. I rechecked the forum and it seems the moderator yanked it!
The sight is "talk agriculture.com"
I see they have another post up claiming figures from Reuters News Service: Out of 620 USDA cows condemned for nervous system type symtoms only about 40 were tested for BSE! I wonder if there is any truth to that?

[rsomer]

Rpkaiser: For information on CBEF see: http://www.cbef.com/CBEF_int.htm

[jensend]

how much more value would be added to the carcass if all animals were tested? this is a question that is irrelevant to our limited kill capacity. it goes right to the heart of the economics of cattle slaughter. the offal woud gain value right away and some of the slaughter practices that have been introduced in the last fourteen months would be unnecessary. if the benefits outweigh the costs of testing and handling it would appear that our packers are willing to make an investment of our money to keep the border closed. it isn't just increased profits for them; it's a confiscation of our equity. maybe our politicians and industry leaders need to get tougher with these a**holes. doesn't anybody in abp, cca or ssga (and i'm not renewing until they pull their heads out) bother to think critically about what's happening????