According to Tom Cook, there are a lot of reasons for the Food and Drug Administration to rescind its enhanced livestock feed rule; he’s just not sure it’s going to happen.
FDA first proposed to ban high-risk cattle material from the entire food and feed chain in October of 2005; the rule was supposed to take effect April 27, 2009, but on March 18, 2009 the agency announced a 60-day extension. There will also be a reopened comment period and Cook, who’s president of the National Renderers Association (NRA), told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor “you can rest assured” they’ll have something to say.
The Bush Administration moved ahead with the rule last year in order to get South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak to reopen his market to U.S. beef; it had only sporadically been open since the first U.S. mad cow disease case in late 2003, and had been completely closed since fall of 2007. Lee’s decision, though, prompted riots in the streets that threatened his brief presidency, and U.S. and Korean merchandisers ultimately agreed to voluntarily limit imports to beef from cattle under 30 months of age.
That, said Cook, was one reason to rescind the rule. “The Koreans have not lived up to their end of the deal,” he said. “They’ve essentially shut off the market on any animals, or products from any animals, over 30 months of age – what this rule is all about… So, for us and for a lot of people, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference as far as the Koreans anymore.”
Another reason, he said, is the negative impact on the industry. NRA’s 50 member-companies represent 90 percent of the rendering capacity of the U.S. and Canada; they process 59 billion pounds a year – enough, Cook said, to “fill the landfill capacity in this country every four years.” Even though animals affected by the rule represent less than 5 percent of the industry’s output, “it’s an important 5 percent when it comes to dealing with disposal and environmental and public health issues,” he said.
That’s because many renderers are simply refusing to pick up dead stock because of the expense involved in removing the specified risk materials – brains, spinal cords and some internal organs; others, Cook said, will continue to pick up carcasses, but at double or triple the cost, and they don’t think farmers will be willing to pay that expense.
And, he argues, there’s no reason for it. SRMs have to be removed because the rendering process does not necessarily destroy the prions believed to cause BSE. But Cook said, “We don’t believe we have BSE in this country.” USDA has tested 800,000 cattle for BSE; other than the December, 2003 case in Washington State, which was an animal born in Canada, there have only been two other positives, and neither had the strain known to transmit the disease. SRMs are already prohibited from cattle feed – the rule would extend that to swine and poultry feed as a precaution – and Cook said industry compliance is “at 98 percent or better.”
At press time, in a "pre-notice," the FDA said it "has become aware that some affected persons, particularly those in the rendering industry, are experiencing difficulties modifying their operations to comply with the new requirements contained in the April 25, 2008 final rule and, therefore, may not be in full compliance by the April 27, 2009, effective date."
Accordingly, the FDA is proposing this action to delay the effective date of the April 25, 2008, final rule for 60 days until June 26, 2009.
“There’s a lot of areas where the farmers and the livestock markets and the producers depend on the renderer,” he said, “and if the renderer doesn’t pick them up and dispose of them in the environmental and economic public health way, then they’ve got to figure out how to dispose of them. Some landfills will take them; some will not.”
Visit www.ozarksfn.com for more information on rendering laws and statutes in the state of Arkansas.
