No BSE status upgrade for U.S. Beef

The United States was denided an upgrade in BSE risk status from the current category of controlled risk to negligible risk by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Even after years of laws and regulations in place that prohibit any specificied risk materials (bone, brain, spinal cords) from being put into animal feed and during those subsequent years, there were no occurances of BSE in the U.S., but apparently this was not good enough for the OIE. Below is an article from the Prairie Star about the BSE ruling, more after the jump:

http://www.theprairiestar.com/articles/2010/06/16/ag_news/livestock/live22.txt

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Basically what it comes down to, as why the U.S. wasn't able to get the negiligible status, is politics, pure and simple. Countries like Australia which is one of the OIE members who has a negligible BSE risk, has benefited the most from the United States having BSE in the first place. They were able to step in and take up the Japanese and South Korean markets, of which the U.S. had been the number one exporter of beef to, and lost them. Of course they don't want American beef to get a leg up and take back some of the market share that Austraila was able to take away. Who can blame them?

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Not to be left out of the equation, other countries that are in the same boat BSE wise, as the U.S.,are probably very happy and even contributed to the non-upgrade status for American beef. They all know that U.S. beef is the best in the world as far as quality, its the standard by which all others are measured. Countries like Brazil that have been on the verge of taking more and more market share away from the U.S. for years now, but are hampered by their FMD outbreaks, and are always looking for an edge. This non-ruling only helps their cause that much more for the potential of gaining more market share. And of course you have the EU, which hates that the U.S. use hormones in their beef and has for decades instituted a ban on this type of beef, even though the WTO ruled is was illegal to do so (they still don't care, and continue to fight the WTO's ruling). Im sure the EU and other countries, mainly those they have free trade agreements with, teamed up to make sure that the American beef industry did not get to take a step forward with an improved BSE risk status.

However, it is only a matter of time before the U.S. will have the chance to rectify the BSE status and gain market share back that it once lost. You ask how this will happen? Quality, safe, wholesome, nutritious beef will always be in demand. And when you set the standard, people will come.

New Blog http://www.brahmanjournal.com/blog/

I recently started writing for the Brahman Journal's blog, so I won't be posting blogs on here as much. Please book mark this website to read my blogs on all things cattle: http://www.brahmanjournal.com/blog/ I will from time to time post other blogs on here about Ag in general, but mainly when something gets me going.

Thanks and Gig'em,

Allen Livingston

Great American Meatout

DISCLAIMER: I LOVE MEAT, I AM AN AGVOCATE!





A good friend of mine is a field rep for a livestock magazine, he received the following email from http://www.meatout.org/, click on the picture to read it:

























Groups like these, have no shame. They will try and spread their lies and myths about meat to any and everyone the possibly can. This is the type of attacks that American agriculture is battling day in and day out, and the war is nowhere near over!

A few facts to clear up the misconceptions mentioned in the above email:

• No food has ever been shown to cause cancer, especially red meat.
• Proteins like lean beef, have been shown to help prevent type 2 diabetes
• A Vegetarian/Vegan diet does not provide the necessary amount of minerals and vitamins needed to sustain a healthy lifestyle
• E. coli is found on all types of food because it lives in the ground, it does not just affect meat products
• Claims by scientists that meat production is responsible for more than half of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, is unfounded and thoroughly discredited by major universities and other scientists around the world

It's a shame that a few misguided people can try and sway the American consumer with false rhetoric, that is why farmers and ranchers and those that work in agriculture must share their knowledge with the public, so that the truth will be known.