01/25/05 Canada b.s.e. update; Japan compromise?

01/25/05 Canada b.s.e. update; Japan compromise?

The latest news from the Canadian b.s.e. front includes another technical team visiting our neighbor to the North and good news about herdmates of one of the infected cows. First, A.P.H.I.S. Chief Veterinarian John Clifford leads a technical team in Canada this week to investigate the effectiveness of Canadian anti-b.s.e. measures. Whether or not the findings will lead to any delays in reopening the U.S. border to Canadian live cattle and beef from its March Seventh date remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that none of nine living herdmates born within the same year, and on the same farm, as Canada's third b.s.e. positive animal, show no signs of Mad Cow disease. Most of the remaining animals in the herd have either died or have been slaughtered. Could there be another compromise that could lead to Japan reopening its border to U.S. beef products? News reports say Japan could resume limited imports of our beef if their government accepts a U.S. proposal to determine the age of a cow by examining its skeleton. Although Japan has agreed in principal to accept U.S. beef from cows younger than twenty-one months, U.S. producers generally don't keep birth records for individual animals, instead relying on a grading system that uses meat tenderness to determine age. Under the compromise offered by the U.S., it would begin determining a cow's age by looking at the maturity of the skeleton. Now with today's Food Forethought", here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: All the recent commotion over GM crops can be a bit confusing. For some they are a miracle others ""frankenfoods."" Call them what you will but realize GM foods are not new, in fact corn, canola, cotton and soy beans have been genetically modified for years. Sixty percent of the processed foods in our supermarkets now contain GMO ingredients, even many of the soft drinks. Yet despite acceptance in the US it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to introduce new biotech crops. Monsanto recently announced that they have tabled their efforts to introduce new GM wheat, because of opposition, from an unanticipated source: US and Canadian farmers. Unlike consumers wheat farmers apparently are not as concerned about the safety of the GM products but rather the market for them, so until consumers in Europe and Japan will accept GM foods, wheat farmers do not want to risk growing it. I'm Susan Allen with today's Food Forethought.
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