Letters To The Editor

Dear Sir,
As I sit here contemplating life in the post-BSE world, there are a few thoughts which come to mind. It seems that the hysteria is not confined to only the media, but also to the USDA and most of the organizations which claim to represent the cattle producers of this country.

Nowhere in the endless editorials and statements coming out in recent days since the BSE discovery have I seen mention that the downer cow ban might have the opposite effect of making the U.S. food supply more susceptible to BSE contamination. Think about what is going to happen when a farmer or rancher has the misfortune to own a downer cow. Instead of hauling her to the local packing house to salvage the meat, the offending animal is going to be put down and buried on the farm, assuring that she will not be tested for disease. Does it not make sense that if we have the goal of eliminating this disease from our borders, we would want to test the highest risk cattle? On the other hand, Ann Veneman and the rest of the gang at the USDA may have given us an insurance policy that will almost guarantee that no BSE will ever be found within our borders again.

I wonder if any of the ones who have been out in front assuring the public that the U.S. beef supply is safe have given thought to the fact that we really don’t know where the hamburger or steak they have eaten was produced? Without mandatory COOL and/or a national ID system, how do we know that our beef supply is in fact safe? Given all of the misinformation that the NCBA has put out in recent months about COOL, I for one am not going to take them at their word when they tell the public not to worry about our beef supply.

Schuyler Wight
Odessa , Texas

Dear Sir,
It’s amazing to me how we figured out what to do with downer cows after the wreck is on.
Rodney Schoen
Comanche, Texas

Dear Sir,

Let's see if I have this straight regarding the number of accomplishments by the USDA in 2003:

(1.) A Canadian vet verifies proper age (30 months or younger) for every animal on the trailer or he just sings a few bars of "On the Road Again" to them and seals the trailer. A USDA official at a packing house in the U.S. breaks the seal.

(2.) USDA rules allow Canadian cattle imported for slaughter in the U.S. but the intestines are condemned because BSE prions have been found in part of the intestines six months before they are found in the brain.

(3.) The condemned intestines will go into U.S. landfills, and BSE researchers are not in agreement as to what the life of the prions are in landfill.

(4.) There will be no warning signs on the trucks so that in case of an accident special care can be taken not to introduce BSE prions to the U.S. at the wreck site. There will be no signs on the trucks going to the landfills, either.

(5,) The USDA's understanding from BSE researchers is that BSE prions have not been found in the muscle of the animals, therefore it is okay to run a band saw down the spine through six feet of spinal cord (where BSE is found) and the prions will be ON THE MUSCLE. USDA believes in the Tooth Fairy, also.

(6.) USDA says that cattle 30 months of age from Canada are okay for Americans to consume, yet BSE has been found in cattle that are 21 months of age, and it is possible to find BSE in that animal’s intestines at 15 months of age.

(7.) Canada is importing more beef this year from the U.S. than ever before, proving that all Canadians want beef that is clean from even the possibility of being infected from BSE.

(8.) President Bush's friends who bought his ball team, making him a millionaire, have bought the biggest share in Australia's largest beef processing plant, but that has not influenced President Bush at all on him being against COOL.

(9.) The U.S. Animal ID Plan (comments being taken on this program until December 10, 2003, requiring four copies) was conceived in the back seats of Packer Lobbyist limousines with packers, packer lackey organizations (NCBA) and USDA officials all wracking their brains to come up with ways to get American producers to throw in the towel on COOL. Packer logic went this way (if you remember), that there is no point in labeling foreign meats if we don't have a verified traceback on domestic meats. While this excuse was pathetic, it's true, back seat tongues running fast and loose was touted as national policy.

(10.) Does the program that guarantees South Korea and Japan clean American beef only prove their lawmakers have a higher bribe threshold, or are they more concerned about their countrymen than American lawmakers are about us?

(11.) When the major packers’ dollars to U.S. congressmen and packer bribes and promises to the USDA officials exceed a predetermined amount, I guess it is okay to deny Americans COOL and give us a middle finger gesture. You would think that with all that bribe money, the USDA could afford to buy a copy machine so I wouldn't have to make copies for them when I have comments on their programs.

(12.) It has finally come to light that in 1999 and 2000 the USDA jeopardized the safety of the U.S. food supply by letting in 823,632 pounds of meat from foreign plants (meat that packers ordered) that might not have been approved. Some of the meat came from plants that were banned because of animal diseases. USDA records were not able to trace all the meat. Keep in mind the meat came to the U.S. by refrigerated containers with bills of lading attached. However, if the USDA gets their wish (and they normally do via greenbacks), they can track every animal in the U.S. with this soon-to-be USAIP program.

(13.) As late as this month, 166 agricultural and consumer groups, representing over 50 million Americans, could not persuade Congress or the President to keep COOL as passed into law in 2002. USDA officials, given the job of writing workable rules for COOL, and NCBA leaders proved they could not be pulled off of the packer teat for the entire year of 2003.

Well, I think I understand what the USDA and other government officials have accomplished so far this year. They have pretty well ensured that our own meat supply is going to be poisoned just so that Canada and the packers can be happy.

James Stotts
Llano, Texas

Dear Sir,

After reading letters to the editor in several ag publications and paid ads in others, I am compelled to reply.

I am appalled at the attitude of some of my fellow stockmen, graziers and cattle feeders. My dad taught me several things in his life, but the three that stand out and apply in this situation are:

(1.) Never kick a man when he’s down.

(2.) What you give to the poor will come back twice.

(3.) Money made from another’s misfortune won’t stay home.

I keep hearing and reading that we should never reopen the Canadian border to beef or live cattle. In other words, kick ‘em while they are down. Those farmers and ranchers in Canada are just like us, trying to scratch out a living and leave a little something for our kids.

What has happened to country folks? Twenty years ago I broke my leg just before calf working time, and 20 guys showed up to work the cattle for me. When my neighbor’s wife was dying of cancer one summer, the whole heighborhood got together and put up his hay. When a young man in the area was severely injured in a truck wreck, the ag chapter got together and had a pie auction for him and raised $12,000. The boy’s aunts had made a quilt and donated it to the auction. It was sold and donated back six times!

When a lady with boys in the local FFA chapter died suddenly, the ag teacher brought out a busload of kids. They picked up 1800 bales of alfalfa and stacked it in the barn in about four hours. They all pitched in to help a neighbor. When my sister-in-law’s dad was in the hospital at harvest time, she started to combine the wheat herself, and the next thing she knew, there were eight or nine combines in the field and 10 or 12 trucks waiting to haul the wheat. Fastest harvest they ever had.

I could go on and on. The point is, country folks help their neighbors.

The Canadians are our neighbors. It wouldn’t bother me if the border were reopened today. We must not be so GREEDY as to want to make a windfall from their misfortune.

We all know this is a bunch of bologna, anyway. BSE and CJD are not a threat to the population; we know it and they know it. This whole broohaha is just to pacify a bunch of tree-huggers and animal activists who want us all to be vegetarians, and the Japanese who want to buy beef cheaper.

If we want an export market, we must be willing to accept imports. The value of our imports is $1.15 per pound versus $1.38 per pound for our exports, and most of what we import is grinding meat, not steaks and roasts. We can’t produce enough cull cows to meet the demand for burgers sold through fast-food establishments.

Let’s face up to the fact that the harder we make it on the Canadians, the harder the rest of the world will make it on us when and if we have a home-grown BSE cow, and we may sooner or later. Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together; that fact won’t change.

I think we should work with the Canadians to tear down the myths associated with BSE. Then we all would benefit equally, and not on the backs of the Canadians.

Unfortunately for those sale barns and feedlots that are behind what I’ve read, you will never see any of my cattle or my money. You fellows are too greedy for me to do business with.

In closing, I recall something else Dad said: “Son, this, too, will pass.”

Bill Lynn
Bartlett , Kansas

Dear Sir,

The question for USDA is: "Why?"

I want the Secretary of Agriculture to answer a question. Why did USDA choose to share information about the BSE outbreak with a "chosen few" before she walked to the microphone and announced it publicly? How many days did she sit on this information and whom did she choose to share it with while cattle and grain futures contracts were dumped, federally funded insurance pools were drained, and live cattle were moved strategically?

We know for a FACT that she shared BSE information with NCBA before she shared it with you and I. NCBA’s Dr. Gary Weber admitted it on RFD-TV. Weber said (and this is verbatim), "Well, I remember getting a call on December 23 about 10:30 talking about the possibility of this cow and remember at that time it was a presumptive positive. On the 24th, when it was announced, the samples had to go to Weybridge , England for confirmation before any information came out about that animal. I believe at that time they had suspicions that it was a Canadian animal, but the implications for USDA saying that and it turning out not to be true would probably be viewed by consumers and others as a way to distract people from this being perpetuated as the first true U.S. case."

According to Weber, NCBA was notified by 10:30 on the 23rd. He says the public announcement was made on the 24th when in reality it was made late in the day on the 23rd. Is it possible he has his dates mixed up and NCBA was actually informed on the 22nd?

How many people either dodged a bullet or profited with this insider knowledge? This cover-up and intentional delay in releasing pertinent information that would’ve made a difference — a BIG difference — to cattlemen everywhere deserves nothing less than a full-blown Congressional investigation and Ann Veneman’s immediate dismissal. There are too many questions unanswered, and it’s obvious USDA isn’t going to answer them without being sworn under oath.

The burning question to be answered is "why.” Why did the UNITED STATES Department of Agriculture put anyone or anything in front of UNITED STATES cattlemen? It’s a Republican administration in charge, folks. Let’s ask the Republicans what they intend to do about it.

Randy Stevenson
Double S Livestock
Wheatland Wyoming

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