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From: TSS ()
TRANSCRIPT Release No. 0414.05 Contact: USDA Press Office (202) 720-4623 OF NEBRASKA FARM BILL FORUM WITH AGRICULTURE SECRETARY MIKE JOHANNS AND MODERATORS SUSAN LITTLEFIELD, KZEN FARM NET, KEN RAHJES OF KRVN AND EMERY KLEVEN OF KOYL AT THE HUSKER HARVEST DAYS IN GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2005 SNIP... MODERATOR: Thank you. Over here. MR. BURTON BEARD: Burton Beard, I farm in southwest Nebraska. I would like to thank the Governor and the Secretary for coming out here. My comment is we always hear about we’re supposed to sell our products and that’s our main deal is selling overseas. I was wondering why a company that wants to test for BSE is not allowed to go ahead and test and sell their product, why the USDA says, no, you can’t do that. Thank you. MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you. One more over here. SNIP... SECRETARY JOHANNS: -- [in progress] -- the current state of the law is it is mandatory. And somewhere out there, as your Secretary of Agriculture, if that’s the way it’s headed, we will enforce the law. I told the Senate AG Committee, and that’s just the way it is. I don’t have the option when you call me and say, oh, my gosh, Mike, what happened here? I’m not liking what I’m seeing here. It is mandatory. I think I know a little bit about the independence of farmers and ranchers and I would guess our phone will ring. But it is mandatory today. The other thing in terms of very early on a lady got up and talked about Japan. Let me give you and update on Japan. If you are in the beef industry, this is an important update. As you know we’ve been working with Japan for some period of time now to get the borders reopened. Japan and South Korea are the major pieces of our market that are not yet opened to beef. We’ve had good success in other parts of the world in convincing people to really pay attention to the science-based approach with BSE and reopening their markets. But Japan and South Korea are two major parts. I recently met with the new minister of agriculture from Japan and we literally went through their chart of process that they go through with their Food Safety Commission and literally they’re running out of process. I mean, we are getting to a point here where I can tell you, and in fact at their last Food Safety Commission meeting in Japan, one of the members said, we should have a written report to discuss at the next meeting. So I really do believe that we are nearing the end of this process. Now, I tell you that because I really believe that science is on our side and that border needs to be reopened. I said that from the very first day I came in. We in the United States shipped into the United States historically a small amount of Kobe beef. I don't know if you’ve ever been to Japan you’ve probably had Kobe beef. But we closed our borders to their beef products. And as you know, they have found BSE, I think they’ve found their 20th case in Japan. And the issue there for us is, have they done the proper risk assessment? And without going down into the weeds on that, we go through the same risk analysis that we would do with any other country. But here is the very important point. It would be disastrous if, you know a month from now Japan said, we’re ready to reopen our borders, and called me and said, you know, we’re ready to go. We’re ready to receive U.S. beef. How are you doing on that small amount of Kobe beef that is out there? We’re starting to think maybe over here, well, wait until you get that done. You don’t want your Secretary to come out and say, gosh, I’ve just gotten the signal, they’re ready to reopen their beef after two years at work, and it nearly is two years. But I need another six, eight, ten, 12 months to get through a rulemaking process on this small amount of Kobe beef that they ship into the United States. So I am very mindful of the trade issues. I think I know where you’re coming from. I know where you’re coming from. We are not letting their beef in today. And what you’ve been reading about is the process that we are trying to put in place because, again, I do believe we are nearing the end of their process and we are going to see a day where we ship that product in. I’ll share a quick story with you about beef in Japan and beef in Taiwan. You will find this interesting. In Japan, a few months back, they literally got down to a point where the coolers were about empty of U.S. beef. And so this grocery store announced that they would be doing rice bowls with U.S. beef. And they even charged more for these rice bowls with U.S. beef. And they said, this is the end of the stock. You know what happened in Japan? People stood in line to get our beef. The consumers are ready for our beef to return to their marketplace. And I am more than willing to accommodate them. In Taiwan, they opened their border for a short period of time. Then there was this last animal out of Texas. When consumers got a hint in Taiwan that there was the potential that the border would close to U.S. beef, people rushed to the butcher shops to buy all the American beef they could get their hands on. The consumers are on our side on this issue. And I believe once we get those markets restored, we are going to be able to aggressively return to that marketplace. http://www.usda.gov/documents/FBFNE091505.pdf Johanns lies remind me of more old lies below; It's delicious THE only 'science-based approach' GW et al know at USDA is this stupid BSE/TSE MRR policy, a policy based on nothing more than commodities and futures, a legal tool to trade all strains of TSE globally. ...TSS
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