Johnson Questions Brazilian Beef Imports
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) recently urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to address safety concerns following the USDA decision to lift a ban on Brazilian beef into the U.S. The U.S. suspended imports in 2017 following several public health concerns.
“Consumers purchase beef without reservation. That confidence is vital to sustain domestic beef demand,” said Johnson. “While we must honor trade agreements based on sound-science, I feel compelled to question Brazil’s ability to maintain the food safety standards equivalent to USDA FSIS that ensure consumer confidence at the meat case.”
Full text of the letter below:
The Honorable Mindy M. Brashears
Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Deputy Under Secretary Brashears:
As you know, South Dakota ranchers pride themselves on their product and the consumer confidence in the safety of beef in the meat case. Further, cattlemen in South Dakota know they produce a high-quality beef product that can compete in any foreign or domestic market. However, consumers must be confident that any fresh beef purchased in the U.S. is safe to eat. As such, producers welcomed Secretary Perdue’s June 22, 2017, announcement that U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) would be halting imports of fresh beef from Brazil to the U.S.
In the announcement, USDA noted that although 100% of the imported beef from Brazil was inspected, their rejection rate was substantially higher than the rest of the world. In the same announcement, USDA also cited public health concerns, sanitary conditions, and animal health issues as problematic factors that influenced USDA’s decision to halt Brazilian beef imports. Consumers purchase beef without reservation. That confidence is vital to sustain domestic beef demand.
While we must honor trade agreements based on sound-science, I feel compelled to question Brazil’s ability to maintain the food safety standards equivalent to USDA FSIS that ensure consumer confidence at the meat case. Additionally, I am concerned about the long-term enforcement and oversight of their processes. I respectfully request answers to the following questions about the decision to lift the Brazilian beef ban:
- As you know, industry views foreign fresh beef as a risk to accidental introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), as well as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). How did FSIS coordinate with the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to consider the health of the domestic cattle industry with respect to this decision?
- Following USDA FSIS’s on-site audit of the US-Brazil equivalency agreement, what commitments has Brazil made to improve its food safety inspection protocols and how will USDA FSIS conduct rigorous oversight of Brazil’s beef exports?
- Does USDA FSIS plan to inspect 100% of Brazil’s beef imports? If so, for how long?
- If Brazil fails to uphold its commitments to maintain food safety, what mechanisms, if any, does USDA FSIS possess to quickly halt imports to ensure consumer safety in the U.S.?
I appreciate your commitment to providing U.S. consumers the safest and most abundant food supply in the world and appreciate your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
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Not worth the paper it’s written on. He does not support MCOOL. Just another globalist who refuses to stand up for American beef producers. If you raise beef this guy is against you.
Not true, Mike. Dusty has many ranchers supporting him, so they obviously disagree with you. Plus, a number of his key staffers and advisors raise cattle.
So you are saying Dusty supports MCOOL? I’ve asked and could not get a response. I see he supports voluntarily labeling beef. Fruits, vegetables, fish, clothing, automobiles etc etc etc have mandatory Country of Origin labeling. If you don’t support MCOOL than you support foriegn beef coming into this country with no way of knowing where it came from. I refuse to support any candidate who doesn’t put American producers and their products over foriegn interests. I hear more people who support American producers than who support foriegn producers. Put up a poll and ask if consumers would rather buy American or Brazilian beef. Better yet put up a poll asking if people are fine with all beef being labeled product of the USA when all it takes to qualify is simply unloading beef off a ship and transporting to the grocery store because value was added in the USA so than it qualifies as Product of the USA. I don’t care what other people think. Hell people are voting for Bernie Sanders so people voting against their own prosperity is happening all the time. I’m going to support Americans.
How did you try to get a response? He said on the radio last month he’d love to have country of origin information available to consumers. He also said he is working on an approach that should move us in that direction.
This is a total political pander to take an issue from Liz May. Well played.
Liz needs more tricks in her bag.
Country of origin labeling is not important enough, to enough voters, to swing an election.
It didn’t actually make Gallup’s list of 16 important issues. “Trade with other nations” might include the issue and it was ranked as important for 68% of voters, but “trade with other nations”
means a lot of different things to different people.
Ranting about the candidates’ positions on MCOOL isn’t going to influence the election when you haven’t convinced people they should care. You’ll have to do that first.
MCOOL is not the silver bullet some producers think it is. Still, all three of our congressionals support it but are among the minority in congress who do. Ranchers need to get other state’s congressmen on board for it to ever have a chance. Right now, it’s DOA with minimal support in DC. Also need to get Cattlemen and Farm Bureau on board.
Not only that, the WTO ruled on COOL and we’d face fines if implemented as before, so what would that gain us? There is a way to identify USA raised beef, Thune & Rounds have a bill going forward lets see where it goes.
If you support MCOOL you need to scare everybody to death with an ad campaign about E. Coli and Mad Cow disease. Once you have the public convinced that beef from other countries is going to kill them, you will see some progress on the issue.
I’m all for a true campaign of what foriegn beef is. The NFL has advised their players not to beef because if they eat non labeled Mexican beef they will flunk their steroid drug tests. None of the foriegn countries we import beef from have to follow a veterinary feed directive like the US. Year after year Canada’s beef packing plants fail our USDA inspections due to sanitary problems. Someday maybe we will have a checkoff that promotes USA beef like we voted on in 1988. Our beef industry spokespeople should be telling the consumers of all the unsafe and unhealthy things about foriegn beef but since 95 percent of Packers and importers are represented by the NCBA and less than 4 percent of American producers can voice their opinion than the importers hide the horrible crap they pass off as beef.