Whatever it is it IS getting a lot of press, most of which has hurt our industry. I personally feel that the Westland/Hallmark incident is a real animal welfare issue that has caused American agriculture to get  a black eye even though we had nothing to do with it. I have been on several conference calls because of my position with USMEF talking about what this has done and where we go next.  

Some facts about what happened in the California meat processing plant: First of all the incident did happen and USDA is digging into whether employees did mistreat some animals at the plant. If you saw the video on TV you know what I am talking about. As far as I can tell the animals in concern were in fact inspected. The employees are in jail for mishandling the cows and not following rules. There are reports here in California that the management and owners are also facing charges. The beef from this plant has been recalled strictly for precautionary reasons until the investigation is completed.

This plant was a major supplier of beef to the school lunch program. According to the numbers I was given, around 51 million pounds of beef is in the school lunch program and approximately 19 or 20 million pounds has already been consumed. Most of the rest of the recalled meat is here in the US. Very little meat from this plant is shipped overseas.  As far as we can tell there is no food safety issue with the meat but USDA felt because of certain circumstances they should do this recall.  

So what damage has this done to American agriculture? More than you will ever know. This issue has caught the eye of all, and I mean the entire media worldwide. I listened in on a press briefing today from USDA on this issue and every major media outlet was on the call. There were questions about: Is the food safe?  How often is this occurring?  Do we have enough food inspectors and are they doing their jobs?  Are there going to be new regulations so this doesn’t happen again?  Were those animals really treated that badly and who is responsible for that?

I think you can see this issue has the potential to change the way the livestock producer does business now and for the foreseeable future.  On another conference call the issue of traceability both in the packing plant and from the farm was brought up. The concerns expressed by several were, why were these animals taken to the packing plant anyway?  Shouldn’t the farmer also be responsible?  Isn't that why we need traceability?  As far as I can tell the animals in question were not non-ambulatory when sold by the individual. This would relieve an individual of any responsibility. But this does not stop the outcry from the public to demand traceability all the way from the farm to the final product so if we do have a problem we will know where it came from.  

Has this had an effect overseas and do they know about it? I am sad to say it is all over the newspapers and media overseas. In a newspaper in Australia  the headline read, "US beef recall because of concerns about Mad cow disease." This is the type of headline that is floating around the world. Other countries are reading our papers online and then printing their own stories. Foreign governments are watching what is happening and talking about what should happen in their countries. This issue will have more effect on world trade than I wish it would. I will be working with this issue for a long time I am afraid. Those pictures say more than any words will and make the consumers of our products wonder if what they are eating is really safe.  

What can we do as Farm Bureau members to help with this issue? Start telling our story, that we DO have the safest food in the world and we are producing it in the most humane way we can. You need to be telling your friends and neighbors about this story and the real truth. We also need to tell our urban friends that we do have safe food. We need to be doing stories about how we go out at 2 in the morning when it is 0 degrees and help a cow calve and make sure that the new calf is warm and dry. These are the types of things you and I can do to help educate the general public about what we really do, not what some have shown on TV.