As a cattle producer, I want to give you some insight on what is happening right now with the US Department of Agriculture. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) is proposing that the United States allow cattle and fresh beef to be imported from 14 states in Brazil. Brazil has more than twice as many cattle as the United States, and the Brazilian herd is growing. APHIS states that the domestic price of cattle is expected to decline (shocker), which is extremely detrimental to cattle producers in our country. However, this is NOT the biggest concern. Brazil has a long history of FOOT-AND-MOUTH disease (FMD), which is the most contagious disease known to cattle. The United States has had nine outbreaks of this horrendous disease since 1870, the most recent in California in 1929– so the US has been disease-free from FMD for 85 years. Brazil does NOT have this track record. APHIS as admitted that “as long as FMD is endemic in the overall region in South America, there is a risk of reintroduction from adjacent areas into the proposed exporting region.” This is the link for the APHIS docket. There are parts of Brazil that are declared FMD free, however, there is not adequate protection of these herds from other herds in areas that are not FMD free. In addition, it was only one year ago that the US discovered that Brazil had failed for TWO YEARS to comply with notifying us that there had been a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) that had died in 2010. WHY does the USDA feel the need to harm domestic agriculture?
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:19:03 +0000
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