Meat + Poultry - July 2005 - 60

Progress Report

Bernard Shire is a food safety
consultant for Shire & Associates in
Lancaster, Pa., and previously was
director of regulatory and legislative
affairs for the American Association of
Meat Processors.
We would like to hear from you- your comments
and questions about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: meat&poultry@sosland.com
64

MEAT&POULTRY

July 2005

COOL under pressure
Johanns is not a big fan of the Country of Origin Labeling law, which is
slated for implementation in September 2006. The law, passed by Congress
as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, requires
retailers to inform consumers of the
country-of-origin of covered meat
products. Since its approval, efforts are
being made by lawmakers to derail the
mandatory requirements and make the
law voluntary.
Johanns says he is a strong proponent of voluntary labeling, even
though as head of U.S.D.A. he is in
the position of having to carry out the
mandatory COOL law. The secretary
says he has seen a voluntary version of COOL succeed in Nebraska,
known as the "Nebraska Corn-Fed
Beef " label, and in other states. Johanns considers mandatory COOL
a "one-size-fits-all" approach, with
drawbacks for producers, processors
and consumers. Since mandatory
COOL is the law, U.S.D.A. must create regulations that follow the law.
But he wants to work with processors
to make sure these regulations have as
little negative impact as possible.
At the same time, Johanns is doing
nothing to disguise the fact that he
hopes Congress moves quickly toward
enacting voluntary labeling. He and the
Bush Administration are supporting recent efforts in this direction, including
a bill introduced by House Agriculture
Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte
(R-Va.) that would require Johanns
to set up a program that would allow
retailers to label beef, pork and lamb
as American products if they come exclusively from animals born, raised and
slaughtered in the United States.

Johanns

ON...

Voluntary versus universal
B.S.E. testing
"This issue came to a head (with Creekstone Farms, Arkansas City, Kan.) before I
became secretary." Johanns says. "I supported
U.S.D.A. There is no scientific backing for
universal testing. If you start doing universal
testing, it becomes the standard. We have a
feed ban and the ban on specified risk materials. That's where the science is."
But a recent study by Kansas State Univ.
showed that if voluntary testing of cattle had
been allowed, which Creekstone tried to do,
the American beef industry could have recovered some of the billions of dollars it lost
from banned exports. Does Johanns think it
was a mistake to not allow voluntary testing? "We disagreed on policy. Look at where
voluntary testing takes you. I think U.S.D.A.
has the right approach, which is to reopen
the borders as quickly as possible."

National Animal
Identification System
Johanns thinks the National Animal
Identification System he's proposed will be
beneficial to producers, processors, retailers
and consumers, and should be state-run.
"When you have one cow in Washington
state that has B.S.E., you should be able to
find out immediately where that cow came
from and whether there are any others that
might have it, which will help consumers,"
he says.
The secretary remembers championing
animal I.D. in Nebraska, having seen its
benefits while serving on an agriculture trade
mission. "Canada is further along on animal
I.D. than we are. They promote that fact in
marketing their beef," he says. "There's no
doubt in my mind that states should have
the leading role in animal I.D., with states

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and U.S.D.A. working together. Private enterprise
should also be part of this plan. When you think
about it, the private sector can play a big role in
identifying animals," he says.
Johanns once suggested that it might be a
good idea to relax the total ban against using
non-ambulatory, or downed, animals in meat
production. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has also
suggested this possibility, and Johanns says
he'd consider making such a change but realizes there are dissenting views on the topic.
"We would have to go through rulemaking, I
can't just wake up one morning and change
it," he points out. "As you know, there are differences of opinions about this. In the case of a
young animal that simply broke its leg, why not
deal with this animal differently? We'll take the
rulemaking approach, but I have to say, I don't
really have a strong opinion about it, one way
or another."

Interstate shipments of
state-inspected meat
This issue has been knocking at U.S.D.A.'s
door for the past 30 years-allowing stateinspected meat and poultry products to be sold
across state lines. It almost happened five years
ago but got derailed during a fight about performance standards. A plan to allow "interstate
shipment" got U.S.D.A. backing during the
Clinton administration, but the department has
not come out in support since. Would Secretary
Johanns change this?
"I'm not at the point of being able to
support it yet," Johanns replies. "Before I
arrived here in Washington, U.S.D.A. promised
Congress a report about interstate shipment.
That dragged on for a long time, but we're
trying to prepare an updated report about
the subject for Congress. When the report is
ready, I'm going to take a look at it, and then
we'll see."

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Meat + Poultry - July 2005

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