|
             
|
Why has Mexico kept its borders closed to American beef? I
can understand if they wanted to keep boxed beef out for a period of
time to let us get rid of inventories, but I can not understand why
the export pens have been closed to everything but horses.
We have policed our own industry and have shown that the mad
cow incident originated in Canada, so why the holdup? We have for
years had TB show up in many more cases of imported animals from
Mexico and have worked with the
Mexican government to keep the flow of Mexican cattle coming to the
U.S. So why have we let Mexico stop our cattle from going into Mexico
when we have shown them to be clean?
Why have our elected officials, state and federal, let this
situation grow stagnant? I have made calls to try and find out what is
going on and can't find anyone who can give me an answer. Producers in
Texas and many border states need the export of slaughter animals to
help support our market. Feedyards need the Mexican market to send our
smaller carcass animals to. The smaller carcass animals fit the
Mexican market perfectly.
If producers would call their representatives, state and
federal, maybe we could get the Mexican government to see that there
is no problem with our product and open the border to at least live
cattle and in the future boxed beef. Bill Tyer Grandview, Texas While
I agree with most of my fellow cattlemen who have written letters to
the editor about this BSE madness, I have some questions and concerns
of my own. Number
one, what kind of common sense has the USDA been practicing as to let
the meat of a suspect downer cow (no matter what country it came from)
be released into commerce? The common sense I practice, along with
many others, would not allow that beef to have been further processed
until test results came back negative. I am appalled that the USDA
would see fit to test suspect meat, yet let it go to commerce before
test results were confirmed negative. Number
two, now that their deplorable practices have been exposed, they are
putting into effect a bunch of feel-good regulations designed to make
the consumer feel safe, when in actuality had they enforced
regulations already on the books and practiced common sense, this
would not be as bad as they are making it out to be. These new
regulations will do nothing more than hurt the little producer, the
farmer and the mom and pop packer, all because the USDA screwed up. I
have yet to hear them admit to their mistake.(I bet I have a long wait
for that.) If
in fact BSE is such a concern, why did the USDA continue to allow
suspect meat into commerce, and why have they continued to allow feed
mills to produce feed that contains animal byproducts right alongside
feed that is produced specifically for cattle? I think it’s time not
only we as cattlemen, but as consumers demand there be answers, and
demand that more common sense be practiced by the USDA! Todd Sharron |
|
 |
|
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? |