The E. coli-related beef recall by JBS Swift is another sign, according to R-CALF USA, that the nation does not need a National Animal Identification System, but a national disease prevention strategy. “With our new foreign-owned packer, JBS from Brazil, we now have another meat recall,” says Bill Bullard, R-CALF CEO. Bullard tells Brownfield the packer level is where food safety prevention must be focused, “This is a recall where the problem originated at the meat packer. It is a failure of USDA to properly enforce existing food safety standards that is creating the risk for consumers, right now, today.”R-CALF recently sent a letter to House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, thanking and commending her for putting “zero” funding into N-A-I-S for 2010. Bullard says that decision is in apparent recognition of the widespread opposition of producers and consumers to a national animal I-D system.
Bullard says the U.S. has been “systematically relaxing its border restrictions” and that’s the biggest threat to U.S. livestock.
R-CALF members have attended every USDA listening session in the past two months speaking against NAIS. The 14th and final session is today in La Vista, Nebraska.
AUDIO: R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard (4:30 min., MP3)
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