Johann's announces BSE roundtable; lays out impacts of closed border

Food & Drink Weekly, May 23, 2005

USDA Secretary Mike Johanns last week announced that USDA will hold a roundtable discussion on June 9 regarding the safety of North American beef and the changing infrastructure of the industry. Johanns said data illustrating the success of USDA's enhanced BSE surveillance program will be part of the roundtable discussion entitled The Safety of North American Beef and the Economic Effect of BSE on the U.S. Beef Industry.

The enhanced surveillance program targets the population of animals in which BSE is most likely to be detected, including non-ambulatory or downer animals, animals exhibiting signs of a central nervous system disorder or any other signs that could be consistent with BSE and animals that die from unknown causes.

More than 350,000 animals have been tested and all have been negative. The event will bring together USDA experts, producers, packers, other industry groups and academia to discuss the science of BSE and the economic impacts on the U.S. beef industry. The topics of the roundtable will include current science behind the safety of the beef supply, economic activity including markets and job losses, and the shifting infrastructure with an eye toward the long-term effects on the global beef and cattle market.

"We will present irrefutable evidence about the safety of the beef supply, the North American beef supply and the devastating effects of border closures on the mom and pop cattle ranchers and processors in our country," Johanns said in announcing the summit.

Johanns also gave a forceful rundown of the short- and long-term impacts of the continued partial closure of the U.S.-Canadian border to Canadian live cattle. The major impacts have been on U.S. beef slaughter and processing plants, resulting in a significant increase in Canadian processing capacity. Johanns warned the U.S. beef industry would be permanently hurt if imports of young Canadian cattle do not soon resume because Canada is restructuring its industry and expanding

"The market is restructuring before our eyes. American producers and processors will be left out in the cold if the border is not re-opened soon, " Johanns said. He noted his concern is that as more and more processing moves to Canada, production will follow. "Those same folks will then be asking why we didn't do more to get the border open. "

The effect on the meat-packing business has been significant, said Mark Dopp, senior vice president and general counsel to the American Meat Institute. "Our best estimate overall is that 6,000 jobs have been lost, certainly in part due to the Canadian border closing," Dopp said. "I wish I had better news to report about the situation today, " Johanns said. Noting he has the "ultimate respect" for the judicial system, Johanns said that the ongoing legal issues regarding the border closure shows that "the fate of our producers and our small packers...lies with the courts."

"Some refuse to look beyond the short-term economic benefits of keeping the Canadian border closed. They don't see the long-term harm to this industry," Johanns said. "We cannot ignore the fact that Canada is expanding its capacity. Canadian cattle inventory as of April 1 jumped more than 2 million head compared with January 1, 2003. The number of federally inspected slaughters in Canada rose 24 percent last year and climbed another 5 percent this year compared with the same period in 2004. By comparison, slaughter in the U.S. is down 8 percent in 2004."