Home grown diseases aren’t good enough for the USDA, they’ve got to import more disease from other countries. Perhaps that way they can justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars an overly complex, invasive accounting system like the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
US food companies may soon be able to restart sending their pork supplies to Mexico for processing, if US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposals are given the go-ahead.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a proposal to allow the importation of uncooked pork and pork products from designated regions in Mexico where classical swine fever (CSF) is considered to exist if the shipments originate in an area free of the disease.
-George Reynolds for Farm.com
Every time the USDA speaks their lips are moving on both sides of their face. US pork farmers should be shrill about this one. Perhaps the new goal is to outsource our food supply.
Walter,
My family just bought land last month in NE and we plan to move there soon. Just this past week, we got a letter from the USDA stating the following: “It has come to our attention that you purchased [land]. We will need the following information so that we can update our records: Your social security numbers and your middle names.” It is signed by the county executive director of the FSA.
I just downloaded the NAIS User’s Guide from the USDA website, so I am trying to get smart on this issue. We have lots of plans that I would love to share with you. I have been getting to know you on your other blog.
What do you think of the USDA letter?
Don
[Creepy. So they’re trying to sign you up in advance. Maybe it is something innocent. Is it possible the land has been in some sort of CREP or other NCRS type deal. You could do a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) asking what they know about you and what they know about your land. I would write them directly and ask why they need this information. I also probably would not provide it unless there was some obvious benefit to me and no detriment. I don’t like giving out my SS# or other info. Didn’t the USDA’s mother ever tell them not to talk to strangers? -WJ]
Comment Don Underwood — January 21, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Outrageous behavior from the USDA continues, I see… Only adding yet another reason that I’m glad I don’t eat pork…
[It is worse than that. Remember the same game with the Chickens from China. The solution is to buy locally from farmers you trust or to raise your own meat. We raise pastured pigs, chickens, ducks and sheep for exactly that reason. -WalterJ]
Comment Rachael — January 21, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
How interesting - our local (small) packer gets all his pork from Canada.
So .. what’s going on with the US pork industry?
We know what happened to Florida’s pork raisers, of course, and AZ gave hogs and calves ‘legal protection’ last year .. is the situation even worse than it looks?
Comment Lynn — January 21, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
I have a question concering Premise ID, since this ID goes with the your land, all future transactions on this land meaning selling it. Say it was not disclosed at time of the sale. What happens? Another question what happens say you have a buyer for your farm and the new owners have no intentions of having livestock, and they question you about the ID, and they dont want anything to do with it, that would mean you loose out on a sale.
[It goes with the land. More on that in tomorrow’s post. -WJ]
Comment Gisela — January 21, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
Okay call me paranoid but…what if the Mexican Pork is diseased or “bad” in some way. Will the USDA then declare that we need to get into a cooperative INTERNATIONAL Animal I.D. system? Makes you wonder about “outsourcing” since much of The United States manufacturing base has moved to foreign countries why not move Pork production (or poultry, or cattle) to foreign countries? After all factory farms are interested in one thing - profit. Then “they” can take advantage of lax environmental laws, abuse throw away cheap labor and feed livestock whatever shit they want to. Not that they don’t already do that here, it’s just that all pretenses of cleanliness and safety can be dropped in the 3rd world.
It would be really interesting to get an organization chart of the USDA and see where the higher ups have come from and where they go after their Government “service”. I’m willing to bet they’re at least as cozy with Big Agri-business as the military is with defense contractors.
Comment Bob Constantine — January 22, 2007 @ 12:06 pm
Bob,
NAIS is ‘International’ already. It began when we signed international treaties around 1998.
Celeste
Comment Celeste — January 22, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
Bob: Agribusinessaccountability.org has an article “USDA Inc.” that covers the revolving door employment (and consulting jobs) between the USDA and big agri business.
Why pay the transportation costs to ship something to an area that is not free of a disease? Some packinghouses already use cheap illegal alien labor, so saving labor costs would not be the reason. Perhaps it is simply less rules and regulations. As for the point of origin of the meat products, would corruption never enter the picture?
We really need COOL, only now it will have to be changed to Country of Origin and Processing Label.
Comment eileen — January 22, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
I think we have a major outbreak of brain wasting disease in this nation,inside the beltway,most all of those people seem to lack the basic common sense of a piece of roadkill,and they are supposed to be in charge,God help us!
Comment LEE — January 22, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
This is a sneaky way in the back door. Think about it…..good meat goes to Mexico, bad meat comes back from Mexico….was the meat switched or tainted on purpose??? Then big brother steps in saying they are not sure where the problem started. Better spend taxpayers $$ to find out what happened. Hmmmmmm….let me guess….NAIS is needed more than ever. One more trip on the political merry-go-round. Are we dizzy yet?????
pielady
Comment sue sellars — January 22, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
Here’s a tasty little article about neurocysticercosis, a brain infection caused by a pork tapeworm that is a “growing public health problem in the United States”. The disease is endemic in Mexico and states bordering Mexico.
link
Comment Texas Goat Gal — February 9, 2007 @ 9:44 pm