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R-CALF USA In the News R-CALF USA in the News - Click here for independent newspaper, magazine, and radio coverage of R-CALF USA's activities across the nation. Also available is the Weekly Roundup with R-CALF USA. R-CALF USA News Releases and Statements *Media: For comments, interviews, and further information, please contact our Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson at 406-672-8969 or sdodson@r-calfusa.com.
Billings, Mont. (September 30, 2008) – Today in a news conference here, with strong support from R-CALF USA and other industry stakeholders, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced the Beef Checkoff Modernization Act (S. 3404), which not only will allow a portion of National Beef Checkoff Program (Checkoff) funds to be used to promote USA beef, but also will allow cattle producers to hold a referendum on the measure every seven years or sooner if they petition to do so. Additionally, organizations that did not exist prior to 1985 when the Checkoff was passed into law would now be allowed to bid on contracts to promote U.S. beef.
Washington, D.C. (September 26, 2008) – R-CALF USA has identified several positive provisions, as well as areas in need of improvement, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Interim Final Rule (IFR) on mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), scheduled to take effect Sept. 30. The group submitted its formal comments to USDA today. R-CALF USA’s comments follow on the heels of a joint letter sent today to USDA signed by 32 U.S. Senators, which seeks to achieve many of the same improvements sought by the cattle-producer organization.
Washington, D.C. (September 25, 2008) – R-CALF USA wishes to publicly thank a bipartisan group of 31 U.S. Senators who have formally written to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to request Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer to make substantive improvements in the agency’s Interim Final Rule (IFR) on mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), scheduled to take effect Sept. 30.
Washington, D.C. (September 18, 2008) – Recently, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard participated in a follow-up meeting with U.S. Department of Justice officials to explain the potential damage to the U.S. cattle industry if the department approves the proposed acquisitions of National Beef Packing Co. (National), Smithfield Beef Group (Smithfield) and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, LLC (Five Rivers) to Brazilian-owned JBS SA.
Washington, D.C. (September 17, 2008) – R-CALF USA joined in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today to request clarification of a loophole in the agency’s Interim Final Rule (IFR) on mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) that is being perceived by many producers as a direct violation of the COOL law passed by Congress. Tester Asks USDA to Correct Questionable COOL Loophole Washington, D.C. (September 11, 2008) – R-CALF USA members wish to publicly thank Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., for taking the lead to correct a serious and questionable loophole the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) included in its Interim Final Rule for mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), in which labeling muscle cuts of beef from cattle exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. with a USA label becomes an option, not a requirement for meatpackers. CEO Makes JBS Presentation to Justice Department Washington, D.C. (September 10, 2008) – On Friday, Sept. 5, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard spent more than an hour updating U.S. Department of Justice officials on why granting the proposed acquisitions of National Beef Packing Co. (National), Smithfield Beef Group (Smithfield) and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, LLC (Five Rivers) to Brazilian-owned JBS SA would devastate the U.S. live cattle industry. Industry COOL Meeting with USDA Good News for Members Washington, D.C. (September 5, 2008) – R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard today attended an industrywide meeting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding ideas for the implementation of country-of-origin labeling (COOL). Originally passed in the 2002 Farm Bill and tweaked in the 2008 measure, the law is scheduled to take effect the end of this month. Impromptu Meeting with Amish Generates Interest in Organization Waterford, Ohio (September 5, 2008) – R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian, said he had an impromptu opportunity to speak about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) to a crowd of more than 200 Amish and 35-40 R-CALF USA members at the Owl Creek Produce Auction south of Waterford on Tuesday night, solely under lantern light. Thornsberry already was in the area to speak to livestock operators.
Cattle
Producers Disappointed in Court’s Creekstone Decision; Billings, Mont. (September 2, 2008) – R-CALF USA was disappointed to learn that a federal appeals court – in a split decision – on Friday sided with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its efforts to ban Creekstone Farms Premium Beef (Creekstone) from testing cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). USDA argued that it must control the BSE-testing kits, even though Creekstone had previously spent a great deal of money to build a USDA-compliant testing lab at its facility in Arkansas, Kan.
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This page was last updated on Tuesday, September 30, 2008. |