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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost AT gilanet.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] USDA Says It Erred on Beef
  • Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 00:26:41 -0600

USDA Says It Erred on Beef
But Officials Say Meat Was Safe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46562-2004May21?language=printer

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 22, 2004; Page A03

Agriculture Department officials acknowledged yesterday that the agency
quietly and improperly allowed millions of pounds of Canadian "processed"
beef into the United States, despite an often invoked ban against importing
that type of meat.

"Clearly the process and our failure to announce some of these actions was
flawed," said W. Ron DeHaven, the USDA's chief veterinary officer. He and
other top officials said, however, that the decision to allow in selected
Canadian processed beef was "scientifically sound" and that the meat was safe.

A ban on Canadian beef was put in place last May after mad cow disease was
found in the Canadian cattle herd. It was reaffirmed for processed beef when
USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman relaxed restrictions on some other Canadian
beef products in August.

Yesterday's acknowledgement came after a private USDA briefing at which
Republican and Democratic lawmakers took the agency to task for allowing some
companies to import processed beef -- usually defined as ground beef,
hamburger patties, cubed beef and sausage -- while those products were
officially banned.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said after
the briefing that USDA officials admitted "mistakes were made." The
committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Charles W. Stenholm (Tex.), said the
improper import permits constituted "a breakdown in the process."

"The secretary was saying one thing, and something different was happening,"
Stenholm said. "When you have a policy that isn't being carried out, you have
a problem."

The agent that causes mad cow disease can be transmitted to humans but has
done so rarely. The brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has killed about 150 people, mostly in
Europe.

Since mad cow disease was found in Canadian cattle, the USDA has been under
strong pressure from Canada and large U.S. beef operations with facilities in
Canada to relax the ban on Canadian beef products.

There was some dispute yesterday about how much processed beef entered from
Canada. Census Bureau import statistics analyzed by a cattlemen's group
critical of the USDA showed that 33 million pounds of processed beef were
imported between September and February.

But the USDA said its investigation showed that only 7.3 million pounds had
come improperly from Canada between September and April. Included in that
count were 2.6 million pounds of partially cooked hamburger patties, raw
ground beef and frozen dinners, and 2.5 million pounds of hot dogs and cooked
sausages.

During a teleconference, USDA officials said that Veneman knew nothing about
the processed beef imports and that the permits were approved by lower-level
officials.

"The secretary was not aware that [the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service] was issuing permits for processed products," USDA spokeswoman Alisa
Harrison said yesterday. "While following proper food safety procedures . . .
APHIS failed to obtain approval for their actions from appropriate USDA
policy and legal representatives."

The statement that Veneman did not know of the improper imports was received
with skepticism by the man who uncovered the shipments of banned Canadian
beef, Bill Bullard, CEO of the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, which
represents small cattle growers.

"I can't believe the secretary didn't know what was going on," he said. "This
is among the highest- profile issues in her agency, and it's beyond belief
that she would not be fully aware of every step the agency is taking in this
area."

He also took issue with USDA statements that the imports posed no additional
risk to the public. "The rules were in effect because of the scientific
assessment that ground and processed beef posed a greater risk of carrying
the mad cow agent," he said. "That means USDA put the American public and
cattle herd at unnecessary risk."

The Agriculture Department began issuing the permits to import Canadian
processed beef soon after Veneman announced a relaxation of the beef ban in
August -- a change that allowed boneless beef, but not processed beef, to be
imported.

At the time, top USDA officials said that a formal rulemaking process, with
an opportunity for public debate, would determine when and whether live
Canadian cattle and higher-risk beef products should be allowed back into the
United States.

By September, however, the inspection service was issuing permits for
processed beef and it was coming into the United States, mostly through
Buffalo. The permits became publicly known last month as the result of a
lawsuit filed by the cattlemen's legal fund.

In the teleconference yesterday, DeHaven also said an expansion of the
agency's mad cow detection program was on schedule to go into effect on June
1. Under that program, the USDA plans to test more than 200,000 animals for
mad cow disease over the next 18 months.

DeHaven said that with the expanded surveillance, the agency expects to see
periodic false-positive findings, which he said will be publicly reported. "I
think it's also important to acknowledge that in fact it is possible that we
will find an additional BSE-positive cow," he said.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company




  • [Market-farming] USDA Says It Erred on Beef, Tradingpost, 05/23/2004

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