AR-News: Some, not all, meat safety reforms implemented so far

[jim robertson]

Some, not all, meat safety reforms implemented so far
LES BLUMENTHAL; The News Tribune

WASHINGTON - Six months after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was 
found at a Central Washington dairy farm, the Bush administration has 
implemented some, but not all, of the reforms it promised to ensure a safe 
meat supply.

Earlier this month, the Agriculture Department launched an expanded program 
to test roughly 268,000 cattle over the next 12 to 18 months.


So far, nearly 5,700 animals have been tested under the new program. No 
additional confirmed cases of mad cow - the common name for bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - have been found, though government, 
industry and consumer group officials all say they wouldn't be surprised if 
additional infected animals were found.


The USDA did announce Friday that early, inconclusive test results have 
uncovered a possible diseased cow in the United States. The location was not 
released.


Other administration proposals announced in the frantic days after the 
infected Washington Holstein was found have languished. The Food and Drug 
Administration has yet to issue new rules tightening restrictions involving 
cattle feed. The disease is believed to be spread through feed.


Consumer groups believe the new cattle feed regulations are being held up by 
the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Administration officials 
deny it.


The administration also is in trouble for possible violations of current 
statutes and regulations involving mad cow disease.


In Texas, a suspect animal was sent to a rendering plant before brain 
samples could be taken. The Agriculture Department's inspector general is 
investigating. No parts of the animal, killed in late April, were allowed 
into the human food chain.


Meanwhile, several lawmakers have called for the department's inspector 
general to investigate reports that Canadian beef products, including 
hamburger, were imported despite being barred since a BSE-infected cow was 
found in Alberta in May 2003. By some estimates, 38 million pounds of 
Canadian products were allowed into the United States. But USDA officials 
insist that the ban was not violated and that only about 5.6 million pounds 
of Canadian beef was imported.


The administration also blocked a plan by a Kansas beef company to test all 
of the cattle it buys for mad cow disease. The company, Creekstone Farms, 
hoped such a move could allow it to resume exports to Japan. But the USDA, 
invoking a 1913 law, blocked the Creekstone plan, saying the tests the 
company was going to use weren't sufficient to guarantee food safety.


Critics say the administration's response to BSE has fallen far short of 
what's needed. They charge that the beef industry, including producers and 
processors, has used its "economic and political" clout to block even more 
stringent safeguards.


"They have a lot of muscle to flex," said Carol Tucker Foreman of the 
Consumer Federation of America. Foreman supervised food safety programs at 
the Agriculture Department during the Clinton administration.


Overall, consumer groups have given the Bush administration a grade of D for 
its response to mad cow disease.


"When this started, everyone was nervous and we were persuaded the 
government was acting competently and in the public interest to protect 
public health," Foreman said. "That is no longer true. They have failed to 
follow even their own rules."


Government and industry officials strongly disagree.


"We really ramped it up," said Jim Rogers, a spokesman for the Agriculture 
Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Lots of things are 
in place to prevent the spread of the disease."


Randy Huffman, vice president of scientific affairs for the American Meat 
Institute Foundation, a trade group, said the discovery of the infected 
Washington animal and the new regulations have resulted in significant 
changes in the industry.


"The department took aggressive and proactive steps in January," Huffman 
said. "We've taken all appropriate actions."


Discovery of the diseased animal, originally imported from Canada, initially 
sent shudders through the $175 billion-a-year cattle industry. Prices 
dropped sharply and dozens of countries slammed the door on U.S. beef.


Since then, prices have rebounded to roughly pre-Christmas levels, consumer 
confidence in the meat supply has remained strong and some of the countries 
that banned U.S. meat products, most notably Mexico, have reopened their 
markets. Mexico has been the second-largest importer of U.S. beef, buying 
$877 million worth last year. The largest foreign market for U.S. beef - 
Japan - remains closed.


Even though the industry has rebounded from the mad cow scare, the economic 
fallout lingers.


Gregg Doud, the chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef 
Association, said there are five major packing plants in the region and all 
of them are reliant on Canadian cattle. The United States currently 
prohibits the importation of live cattle from Canada, though the 
administration is considering lifting that ban.


Consumer groups say the U.S. industry has been pressuring the administration 
to reopen the border with the Canada because, in part, they have a major 
stake in the Canadian beef industry.


"Industry has always thrown its weight around," said Patty Lovera of Public 
Citizen.


But Doud said there was no reason to keep the border closed. Canadian 
safeguards against BSE are similar to those in the United States, he said.



The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
Les Blumenthal: 1-202-383-0008
lblumenthal at mcclatchydc.com

http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/5241574p-5176724c.html