GOOD JOB CBC.

[r.reid]

Just watched the CBC News about the Mad Cows in the New York slaughter house. My hat goes off too the CBC for the great job of reporting.

So now what happens???

[plowjockey]

Do the other networks even have investigation reporting? Did anyone even see a mention on any other networks? This is just another USA cover up. I quess Money does rule. Hats off once again to CBC!

[pandiana]

As it happens, there is no way that BSE can be proven as the brain samples have conveniently disappeared. The only thing USDA APHIS can be accused of is sloppy, deliberate or otherwise, testing.
Couple this with the Texas cow, as well as Frielander, another vet who suspects cases have been not reported, (another thread) and at the very least, it should shake the confidence of those that claim BSE does not occur in US.

It might do us some good in our case with Cebull, ... although maybe not considering his inability to see beyond R-Calf's arguments.

[kato]

That's true. It does take a bit of wind out of his sails regarding our "substandard" regulations and enforcement.

When the dust settles, MCOOL could be very good for Canadian cattlemen.

[jensend]

usda is following the strategy that it's a lot better to look totally brain dead retarded than to get caught being crooked. the only problem is that if you never learn from your mistakes people assume you don't want to learn and you're just crooked anyway. i thought cbc's report was a little weak just in the way it was presented. it comes off better on its website than it did on the screen. the americans like to deal with these allegations one at a time as if they are isolated incidents but they keep mounting up and pretty soon a picture starts to form and it ain't pretty. i agree with kato that mcool could be very good for canada.

[farmers_son]

A comment about MCOOL… MCOOL is not about letting the American consumer decide if they prefer to buy American beef or Canadian beef. MCOOL is about blocking access to Canadian beef from the retail meat counters of U.S. supermarkets. Our Canadian beef simply will not be for sale in the majority of U.S. stores because of the restrictions placed upon the retailer involving record keeping and segregation of product by country of origin. It is expected that most retailers will only sell U.S. product in order to simplify and streamline the regulatory requirements which involve keeping 2 years records for a beef/pork product that was only in their cooler for a day. It matters little if our product is tastier or healthier if the consumer cannot purchase it. Under MCOOL Canadian beef would most likely only be found in restaurants and fast food/food service or packaged in prepared products.

See: http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/fiw/031204.html
Also: http://www.banffpork.ca/proc/2004pdf/p001-Anderson.pdf

On the CBC story...I found it most interesting what this story got wide coverage in Canada, and internationally too but not a single U.S. media source was carrying it. Freedom of the press, not in the U.S.of A.

[kato]

It would be 'unpatriotic' to run this story in the States.

What I find interesting is that we are hearing testimony from retired USDA veterinarians who felt they needed to leave the country to be able to speak their minds. What does this tell us about the 'corporate culture' within the USDA?

[FRENCHMAN]

willowcreek /OT So where Is R-Calf on this issue..They are always want get to the bottom of things.why are they not coming forward and proving this wrong or true if they are so concerned for consumer health?

[farmers_son]

I checked the CCA BSE info site for the "industry" take on this story. The story about the U.S. BSE coverup was national news from coast to coast across Canada, although according to the CCA "There have been no major developments since yesterday."

Brad Wildeman, Chair of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) BSE Contingency Plan was quoted as saying he's heard these allegations before, but he's not buying them.

"Without seeing some concrete evidence of that...memos or directives, you know, I think we have to take them with a grain of salt," he said.

[intr3est]

Yep, Brad, tow the company line until you're retired, just like the 3 retired USDA vets! Anybody else wonder why it takes a retired person to come out with these allegations?

[kato]

As for the American vets, fear of reprisal. That's sad.

As for the American media, they just seem to report on things they are 'supposed' to report on. At least that seems to me to be the way it works. Remember what happened to journalists, or even entertainers (aka Dixie Chicks) who said anything opposing the war in Iraq? They were villified and ostracized. (big words eh? LOL) It seems independent opinion is alive and well in America as long as it agrees with the "correct" opinion.

As for the CCA, I wouldn't get too wound up about their response .. yet. Could be they are taking the approach of consumer confidence protection. Their job is to make sure people still want to eat beef, and dropping to the fear mongering level could cost them some credibility. I bet they are just going to stand back, keep some distance, and let the thing play out.

If there have been screwups and coverups down there, we want some distance from it.

[greybeard]

When BSE was discovered in Canada my greatest fear was news reports of staggering cows and fear mongering by some reporter in order to make the National news.
Now we have beef producers hoping to see more follow-up stories in order to inform the public of what? That BSE is a more serious problem than they think?
I don’t agree with any cover-up, but isn’t fear mongering R-CALF territory. Or are we just looking for some mud to sling back? Kind of like drinking tequila, it feels great wile you are doing it, but later on you always suffer.

[SASH]

We've been talking for months about how this is a North American beef industry in the world's eyes. Don't you think that having BSE in the US will have an affect on how the rest of the world views the North American beef market inclucing Canada.

[farmers_son]

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2005/04/0128.xml

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns speaking to the CBC reports at a news conference on food safety issues.

REPORTER: "Thank you, Larry. Good morning, Mr. Secretary. Greetings from Oklahoma. A couple questions in regards to BSE. The Canadian media seems to be all abuzz with some allegations from a former USDA employee in regards to potentially mishandling some cases really back in the 1990s, 1997. Does this have any bearing or does this give us any problems as far as assuring our consumers here, assuring our consumers overseas about the safety of our beef supply?

"And then secondly, related to that are expanded BSE surveillance effort going on right now here in 2004, 2005 over 314,000 critters have been tested all negative. How long do we go? In other words, how many more animals are we going to test in this expanded surveillance effort?"

SEC. JOHANNS: "In reference to your first question, the gentleman that is making these allegations is really doing so with no proof whatsoever. There's just no mileage whatsoever in the USDA not being absolutely transparent. And in fact if we've had any criticism as you know, the criticism has been along the lines of why are you publishing false positives? And the whole effort there was to just get the information out so the claim could not be made that we were trying to cover something up as this gentleman is claiming. He gets a lot of attention because he makes baseless claims, and that's really what it comes down to. There just isn't any accuracy in what he's saying.

"Again there's just no mileage in approaching the testing this way. We feel very strongly that that testing needs to get out even to the point of publishing the false positives-- which like I said we've been criticized about because we've been so transparent there.

"The other thing I would mention in terms of the other question that you asked, you had a second question there. If you could run that by me again?"

MODERATOR: "The second question related to the effect on the markets."

SEC. JOHANNS: "Oh, Larry, thank you. The effect on the markets? We're not seeing the effect. We're not seeing anybody buying in to what he's trying to sell. I think it's getting some media attention in Canada just simply because they've been so involved with working with us to try to get the border reopened. But no. My phone is not ringing over this. Like I said, he just doesn't have any proof, and his baseless claims just aren't causing my phone to ring on this one."

MODERATOR: "And I'm reminded he did ask about how many more animals would be tested."

SEC. JOHANNS: "The other piece of your question relative to the number of animals being tested, we've tested 314,000. As of just a couple days ago. Fortunately all those tests have been negative. One of things that we want to make sure of is we've touched the bases, we've hit the areas of the country that we want to test, and so we're looking at that. We want to make sure that everything we headed out to do we've done. Somewhere out here in the next few months we'll take a look at that. As you point out, it is a surveillance effort; it is not a food safety effort. Our whole goal is to get an idea of what the herd in the United States looked like relative to BSE. And we're doing that.

"So in the next few months we'll be making an evaluation as to where we go here in terms of that increased surveillance and the number of tests to continue in the future."

[r.reid]

But the U.S. media is sure keeping us up to date with the Michael Jackson B.S.. Bunch of freaking RETARDS!