By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — If pleas from agriculture agencies across the country are disregarded, a regulation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon take effect that changes some existing regulations concerning rendering procedures for cattle.
Those regulations have drawn fire from many in the state, including one of the largest dead animal removal businesses in central Kentucky. Gabe Nation of Nation Brothers, Inc. said the new rule will ultimately hurt producers and increase the potential for human and environmental hazards.
He said the possibility exists that millions of pounds of dead stock could be left on the ground across the United States, with many renderers ceasing services because of increased costs, by the FDA’s own estimation.
According to the FDA, the proposal “builds on the (agency’s) 1997 feed regulation, which prohibited the use of certain mammalian proteins in ruminant feed.” It states “the materials that can no longer be used in animal feed are the tissues that have the highest risk for carrying the agent thought to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or ‘Mad Cow’ disease.”
These high-risk materials are the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older. The entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption is also prohibited, unless the bovine is less than 30 months of age, or the brains and spinal cords have been removed.
Nation Brothers, which began in 1985, picks up approximately nine million pounds of dead animals in 22 counties at no cost to farmers. The service is provided and paid for by various county agencies. The regulations will drastically increase those costs, said Nation, something that will hurt his business and leave many counties making the hard decision of whether they can afford the service any longer.
“What this means to our producers is, we’re going to have to double or triple our prices,” he said. “It is a free service to the farmers because we get better participation and because the counties want to be proactive and keep water contamination and herd health a priority. For what we charge a county, they could not buy a truck and pay someone themselves to do the service.”
Nation added that in the area his company serves, there is about a 94 percent participation rate for pick up.
“You charge the farmer anything and overnight that rate will drop to 10 percent. The producers simply do not have the extra money. The farmers are not getting a ‘bailout,’” he said.
In an effort to give officials a look at what could happen if the regulations are not rescinded, Nation suspended his services as of March 2. “My producers in these counties are behind me because they understand that ultimately, this is going to hurt the producer,” he said.
“They aren’t happy with me right now, but they’re behind me. I have no doubt in my mind that this will be rescinded at some point; now how long it will take to do that, I don’t know.”
By all indicators, including a Harvard Risk Assessment Study, the U.S. is considered to be a low-risk country for BSE; however, the beef industry was startled in 2003 when the country’s first presumed case was found in Washington state and found to have come from Canada. That set off economic shock waves throughout the industry as countries including Japan and South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef.
It is the political and economical ramifications that are more at the root of the regulations than the scare of BSE, said Nation. The U.S. beef industry essentially will do whatever it takes to reopen these borders, he said. We import beef from many countries whose safeguards are not as stringent as our own.
“The FDA has no test to check meat and bone meal for the presence of the brain and spinal cord from bovines over 30 months of age, so essentially this is a ‘paper law.’ The law was put into place to help strengthen our BSE safeguards because that is what South Korea asked for so we could agree to a trade agreement with them,” he said.
That billion-dollar-plus agreement was signed in 2007 by previous U.S. and South Korean administrations. The Obama administration has called the agreement unfair, while South Korea wants to sign it “as it is.”
Nation has taken his concerns to the nation’s capital, meeting with congressional leaders, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc., the Center For Veterinary Medicine at the FDA, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to get a scientific explanation for the regulation.
The regulation itself states there will be between 489 million-719 million pounds of carcasses left laying across the U.S. because of the increased cost associated with rendering and removal fees, he said.
Nation also said while he has the support of state leaders, the FDA has yet to give him an understandable explanation of why this proposal should become a mandate.
The beef industry is important to the state – Kentucky is the largest cattle producing state east of the Mississippi, but lower cattle prices and higher cost associated with slaughter already have the industry on edge. While there are other approved methods of animal disposal, free pick up is by far the most convenient for farmers. Rendering is the biggest form of recycling in the world.
Nation said he is making his stand because of the estimated millions of dollars cattle producers across the country will incur as the result of these new regulations. “Nation Brothers wants to be a part of the solution and not the problem, and that is one reason we have stopped service,” he said. “Right now people are noticing the problem and this will raise some big concerns regarding ground and surface water contamination, and it will bring national media attention eventually.
“Now that I have shut my doors, there are a lot more ears open. I stand behind the farmers and I think this is an unnecessary ban.”
The FDA has posted the changes along with responses to comments that have been made, on its website. The report states more than 840 comments were received concerning the rule.
It also states specifically, to the response that current regulations are sufficient for the protection against BSE, that it “agrees that the prevalence of BSE in the United States is very low, and that compliance with the current feed ban by the U.S. animal feed industry is at a high level. Though the situations are not directly, evidence from the European experience has demonstrated that BSE transmission can continue to occur even with a ruminant feed ban in place.”
The 1997 feed ban in the U.S., according to the FDA, is one of the best-enforced bans in its history and is working.
“I believe this regulation will do exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do. We are going to lose control of herd health because the animals will be lying in a sinkhole somewhere.” Nation said. “Honesty and integrity are not part of this game, this is simple politics.”
He added he is open to any and all opinions from anyone who can help him understand this regulation and how it is going to help the country and its producers. For more information contact Nation Brothers at 502-376-6784 or by e-mail at nationbros@shelbywireless.net and to view the proposal visit the FDA website at www.fda.gov |
