Beef News – Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere

I saw recently that the United States Department of Agriculture (<acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>) wanted to allow the <a href="http://www.agweb.com/get_article.asp?pageid=120143&src=gennews">importation of Japanese beef</a> in to the US. I thought this was laughable since they are a beef starved country and have very little beef to export to the US. I assumed they were just doing it to try to get the Japanese market open to US beef and accepted that as a price of doing business. R-Calf was going to oppose it and that should be enough. n nNow I see the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (<acronym title="National Cattlemans Beef Association, shills for the big meat packers">NCBA</acronym>) is <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/08/23/build/business/35-japan-beef.inc">opossing this move</a> too. Has the <acronym title="National Cattlemans Beef Association, shills for the big meat packers">NCBA</acronym> grown a set of gonads or what? I personally don't think so, the big meat packers that control the <acronym title="National Cattlemans Beef Association, shills for the big meat packers">NCBA</acronym> have no stake in letting Japanese processed meat into the US so they are opposing it. It isn't like cheap Canadian beef which they want to process and make a ton of money on so it's no big deal to them. I am just suprised the <acronym title="National Cattlemans Beef Association, shills for the big meat packers">NCBA</acronym> took a stand on the issue, it's so rare for them to oppose what the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> wants that it is note worthy. n nOne other quick note, I see the Canadians shipped a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/08/22/mad_cow_20050822.html">cow over 30 months of age</a> to slaughter in the US against the import rules established for bringing Canadian cattle into the US. For "safety" reasons some beef was recalled because of it. I know this case violated the rules and needed to be acted upon but really, you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than you do of getting <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>. Was all this really neccassary? n nBusiness is thirty percent patience. Chinese proverb n