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Central Valley Business Times (San Francisco) – Tuesday – August 28, 2007 – 11:29 a.m. PDT

 Court opens the gates to Canadian cattle

•  Says USDA acted properly in its OK of limited imports

•  U.S. cattlemen say mad cow disease is the issue

•  UPDATED with audio interview with Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF

The U.S. Department of Agriculture acted properly in allowing limited imports of cattle from Canada, despite incidents of mad cow disease in that country, the Ninth U.S. Circuit court of Appeals has ruled.

“Having reviewed the merits of this case, we conclude that the agency considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and its decision to designate Canada a minimal-risk country,” the decision says.

The Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) has opposed the USDA approval, noting that there have been isolated cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, reported in Canada.

The cattlemen argued that the USDA had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in relaxing a ban on Canadian beef and cattle imports in the wake of the “mad cow disease” scare of the late 1990s.

R-CALF said recent incidents of mad cow disease in the Canadian herd, and in American cows imported from the Canadian herd, cast doubt on the agency’s rulemaking procedure.

“R-CALF’s extrarecord evidence has failed to convince us that the agency’s review was unauthorized, incomplete, or otherwise improper,” the appellate court says in siding with the USDA.

A spokeswoman for R-CALF said Tuesday morning that her organization had just received the opinion. Any statement would await action by her board, she said.

“USDA has acted prematurely and arbitrarily in issuing a rule that for the first time relaxes United State protections against the introduction of BSE from countries where the disease is known to exist,” says Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF.

He says the cattlemen may seek a review by the entire panel of the court of Tuesday’s decision by a three-judge panel.

Mr. Bullard says it seems to him to be a case of ideology trumping consumer safety.

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